h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A new piece to learn... the name "Yodan Uchi" roughly translates to "playing on four sides of the drum." And I do. Its wonderful, joyous, very hard, terrifying, exhausting. My muscles have not stopped aching in weeks. Yet, I feel like I'm flying when I'm playing it right, and like a stumbling ox when I all too often falter. In two weeks, we will debut this piece. I'm hanging by a thread playing this number. No Safety net, here.

My feet are blistered from the spins I have been stumbling through. New blisters will join the ranks of callouses on my hands from where the oak of my bacchi have rubbed the skin, forcing it to comply to the demands made upon it.

I played until the blood ran Sunday, staining the wood of the bacchi forever a brownish red. Blood magic, Sensei says. Let the energy flow through you, he says. Your strength does not come from your muscles, he says. Tension stops the flow, open yourself up, he says. If I'm still standing at the end of practice, then I have not played hard enough, he says.

My friends who sport long, elaborately manicured nails, look at my hands, with their short cropped nails, swollen knuckles, and rough surfaces, and just shake their heads. They cannot understand why I do it.

My little girl, the other day, was walking beside me, hand in hand. She squeezed my hand and said "Oooo mommy... do your callouses hurt?'

"No, honey. The blisters do, but not the callouses."

"I like your callouses, mommy."

"You do? Why?"

"Because no one else has hands that feel like yours. They feel like you."

Exactly.

Nice work! You're privileged to be able to combine art with exercise. My own art only involves my fingers, so to cover the rest of my body I lift weights three days a week, so I also have calluses on my hands!