THE CASE OF THE MISPLACED i

When I learned that mixed marital art was coming to my city I was delighted. I put it high on my list of events to attend.

Over the centuries this art has flourished. It has varied over time and with diverse cultural practices. Books have been written and books have been banned. Performers have been feted and faulted. It is one of the worlds enduring arts which is strange when you consider that public performances are and have been relatively rare.

Perhaps it is this very rarity which gives the flavor of mystery as if we never quite know whether there is more to it than we have yet experienced. That too may account for the fact that it is not considered part of the normal educational curriculum such as music, and traditional art. The very word art conjures up paints and brushes pencils and easels. Even digital camera art requires the explanatory phrasing.

I am looking forward to the performance. Undoubtedly I would have enjoyed such performances more in my more youthful days. Still I have a vivid imagination and an ever present urge to learn new things. In my minds eye I can imagine the skill, artistry, exuberance and the sheer pleasure of the couples. To see the lithe and youthful participants demonstrating the finer points of their art will be both educational and stimulating. Perhaps some of them give private lessons as do the musicians in the symphony.

What a let down it was to find that my anticipation and my vivid imagination had been tricked by my atrocious spelling. It is mixed martial art coming to my city. The strokes are to be blows, the holds are to be painful and the audience is to be impressed with the pain inflicted and the physical carnage of the maxi muscled participants.

Strange how there are such vastly different views of what is obscene.
Strange the types of performance that our city council views as acceptable.
Strange how audiences are stimulated in different ways by violence and by passion.