RIP Story: Sept 26th, 2024

He saw the glove coming the whole way. He tried to block the punch but sometimes you miss. The bell had been rung, but not the bell that would end the round. The bell in his head was ringing and he was staggered, but he was on his feet. A left hook came in behind punch that staggered him. The bells were ringing, but his arms responded to his hours of training, blocked. he tried to throw a follow up punch of his own and his body told him it was time to survive until the other bell sounded.

The gloves trying to knock him down were fast, but they were not looking for the knockout in this moment. He found his balance in a stance that told both his opponents he was here in the ring and ready to keep going after taking such a heavy blow. Being on defense his mind remembered the feeling that last time he took a heavy hit to the head. He’d been knocked to the canvas, and his body resisted his efforts to get back up. His body remembered a split second of refusal while his coach was thinking about the fall and what he would need to say to his boxer while he was laying on the ring.

But this time, that wasn’t needed.

The punch that knocked him down once before had been absorbed. A flurry of punches crescendo’d with the sound of the ring-side bell. The round was over. He walked back to his corner. His coach urgently asking how he felt. He nodded his head quickly up and down. Turning to sit, his muscles relaxed, then a wave of grit washed over his body. He was in control in a way he’d never felt before. He turned grit and anger into focus and strength. He hadn’t heard a word his coach said when the ring-side bell sounded.

After the bout he told his coach that he never realized there was more than one opponent in the ring with him. Both had gloves on, but only one could keep him on the canvas if he fell. Only one could stop him from taking a punch. “I know how to beat the guy in my own corner, now I can focus on beating the guy in the other.”

His coach took him by the shoulders and gave his body a shake. “Let’s get the next one”

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.

EPILOGUE: Life has a way of adding bumps and stops to the journeys we are on. This image is perfect for a conversation I’ve been having with friends, and myself, about motivation and making sure I am able to tell the stories I want to tell while I am alive. I wanted to add a training element to the story above, but time and the moment kept me into the timeframe of the fight itself. The smaller the scope at the beginning of the story, the smaller the scope needs to be overall. At least, that’s how I feel when I’m writing these RIP stories. If I try to change the zoom, the details don’t match across the short story and that feels a little loopy to me.