Since HEMA is pretty much life in microcosm, I present to you with some philosophical musing on it:
1. Sometimes you can do everything right, train really hard, study the manuals, do the very best you can and still lose. This is OK, because this is the nature of life, too.
2. You can never afford to be afraid. Live life courageously, just as you fight courageously.
3. It really can be scary to have a three-foot piece of steel come winging at your head. At first we want to back away, or attack half-heartedly so that we feel more protected by our sword. However, you are also holding a three-foot piece of steel. So in other words, you already possess what you need to overcome that which scares you; you just need to put it out there.
4. You will get hit. You will get hit hard. But if you never develop a tolerance for getting hit you will never go far. Same thing in life. You take your hits, learn how to not open yourself up next time, and keep moving forward.
5. You quickly realize you have weaknesses, and you accommodate yourself around those weaknesses. You either work harder to mitigate them our develop tactics to highlight your strengths and reduce the liability those weaknesses create. Same thing in life.
6. In speaking of your weaknesses: what you do not do, what you never do, is beat yourself up mentally so viciously that you can never lift a sword again. Everyone has weaknesses. That's just part of being human.
7. Every fighter you meet can potentially defeat you, and defeat you easily. This forces us all to develop a healthy respect for the fighter before us because they have talents, skills, learning, etc., of which we know nothing. This is how we need to see others in life as well, as a unique person worthy of respect and with skills from which we can learn.
8. We learn how to lose gracefully and not blame others. This is a terrific life lesson.
9. If you don't train, if you don't back up your training in the gym, if you're not in the treatises, you will not advance as a fighter. As such, you will lose. A lot. You get nothing without effort, sweat, aching muscles, and many hours spent in an almost-obsessive desire to improve.
10. It can be very difficult, almost impossible, to see what you're doing wrong from your perspective. That's why we come to respect and appreciate the opinions of others who are standing nearby watching what we are doing. If we never accept what others say we need to try differently we very rarely improve, in HEMA or in life.
11. We are often given to our own interpretation of things. We know we are absolutely right and we have the data to back it up. Then, someone we respect shows us the same data from a different light and offers up another interpretation. We can either close off our minds to something new or recognize just because we think we're right doesn't always make it so, and in so doing learn something new.
12. Being the absolute best isn't the most important thing. You may never actually be very good at these various fighting styles. You may never win a tournament, nor even place in the top ten. So what? Do HEMA anyway if it fills you with joy. We can never afford to look at things as either absolute perfection -- something already impossible on this world -- or abject failure. There are infinite shades of gray in between, and we need to embrace that.
13. Uncertainty is a part of HEMA just as it is with life. We study the manuals, we think we're right, but who really knows? Another document might be found that tells us all of our interpretations are dead wrong. Doesn't matter, we do HEMA anyway. You have no guarantees in life. You may fail at something you try; do it anyway. You may try your hardest and it isn't enough; try your hardest anyway. You may die soon or live another 100 years; do what you intend to anyway.
14. You are partial to a few given combat styles. You either compete or you do not. You do your HEMA and you don't need to explain yourself to anyone. Just so in your life. You do what you chose, you live the life you chose. You needn't explain that to anyone.
15. You are owed absolutely nothing. You might have perfectly and gracefully wound your sword around to precisely place the tip on your opponents chest only to have none of the judges see it. So what? That is life. Appreciate what you are given and do not focus on what's been denied you because there lies only anger, resentment, and bitterness.
Just a few random things that have occurred to me over the years. Because I'm a psychotherapist I tend to think about the big life lessons, as well as seeing analogies everywhere, and so I started to make connections to what I was doing in fencing with life in general.
If you have any observations or have made deeper connections between HEMA and life please feel free to share them in the comments.
Stay loose and train hard!
-- Scott
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