Mateo: Why raise a warrior?
Almost two weeks ago, on the 21st of September, Marianna, my wife gave birth to Mateo, our firstborn. I believe it was on the first day of Mateo’s life that I suddenly felt this huge responsibility to not just take care of him but also to raise him brave and strong, in short, to help him become a warrior. As I thought about this I realized that in order for me to raise a warrior I needed to become one.
Why a warrior?
Because a warrior, any great warrior that we might contemplate about from a historic Samurai to a present day Navy Seal, is brave and strong.
During my two-week paternity leave, I had a lot of time to think and a few relevant questions came up:
- How do you raise a warrior?
- How do you become one?
- How can I do both at the same time and ensure I continue to be a good husband, son, friend, entrepreneur and mentor?
Before I begin to explore the answers to these three questions (which I’m not entirely sure I will be able to answer them perfectly) — I will start by trying to explain why I believe I need to raise a warrior or better yet, why we should all raise warriors.
Why raise a warrior?
Life is beautiful and good, but it’s also hard and full of suffering. Regardless of how hard we try to solve all of life’s problems we will never achieve it. With each problem solved a new one is born, it’s like trying to kill a Hydra by cutting its heads. Working on creating a safe environment for Mateo is simply not gonna happen, from the small stuff as preschool bullies to losing a pet or a loved one, hard things are gonna happen to him, he is going to encounter suffering, obstacles and inner demons throughout his life.
We should not try to build a secure world but rather to raise warriors who are brave enough to tackle the struggles that are inevitably going to come their way and strong enough to endure and get up when they get beaten down. Because the truth is, they are going to get beaten a lot more times than we would like to.
These warriors will not just have a better chance of truly living their life, but also to help others live it. To quote William Wallace:
Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
A world of warriors is the only chance we have at creating a harmonious life not just for us but for all living creatures in our planet and wherever we might end up living. Warriors precede progress, they precede all innovation, solutions and improvement. For there to be improvement, in any aspect or domain, we need to first identify a problem, flaw or imperfection and later we must address it.
Intelligent people question the status quo and therefore are ones who identify present flaws. Only brave people dare to go against the system, regardless of which system we are talking about and only those who are strong enough to continue daring might have a chance at changing something. This why we need warriors.
“It’s better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.” — Martial Arts Proverb
Warriors are brave, strong, intelligent, honorable, honest, authentic, responsible, loyal, humble and overall, even though it might sound contradictory, they are peaceful. We need peaceful warriors.
Martial arts
I will have to learn the answers to the three questions mentioned at the beginning of this page, but I believe the answer starts with martial arts training. Of course it is too early to teach Mateo how to be on guard, kick, throw or take a punch, so I must start with early childhood development techniques. This gives me time to try and get ahead on all the lessons that I must learn before I can start teaching Mateo.
There are several studies as well as a lot of personal anecdotes from lots of martial artists both professional and amateur that indicate that practicing martial arts helps the practitioner improve: concentration, self-awareness, self-esteem, self-control, emotional stability among many more relevant skills.
Life has smiled at me once more. Life has smiled at me twice these past few weeks, not only do I have Mateo with me but also Marianna, my wife, is the product manager of an app for early childhood development called Kinedu, which I’ll use until it’s time to teach Mateo to throw his first punch.
