Skip to main content

I'm not your fortunate son


 I'm not your fortunate son

As I was preparing for my first MMA Fight in autumn of 2010, my coach and some of the men in the all male fight gym wondered what would be my selection for my walk-out song. I knew we'd have a good audience in Atlantic City. So, I decided since I never felt too fortunate. As I was nearly always considered the non-athlete athlete. I struggled in anything athletic. Yet, the one thing I had and got going for me, was my pain tolerance, my willingness to keep going regardless of how bleek the outcome may seem. And my unwillingness to become completely dismayed.

I thought about comments my coach Phil, the men in the gym, and a couple of former coaches had said and implied to me. A line from my fight coach "You're the son your father always wanted." Yep, that's about the size of it. And seriously, it had been implied when I was a child by some family friends and some of their workers. 

As the fight got closer, I realized I couldn't have them play Verde, too down. Chopin, too soft. And Good God not Vivaldi, and definitely not Mozart. It had to be an audience grabber. It had to represent the blood and sweat of the men I trained with. And it had to be tongue in cheek liberating. It had to liberate me. It had to be a truth about me and how I truly felt about my childhood as a lesser considered human.  Yes, that is how I always felt.  Lesser. Yes, the women, girls who decided to step anywhere  but in the kitchen, were slowly brought down to... below size. I needed to liberate that. 

So, on a sunny Saturday morning, I arrived in Phil Dunlap's basement gym early. My Fight coach was speaking with who became my many years wrestling partner, Peter. Disciplined, 6'4" in height, and 190lb linguistic genius who had fought in Japan. After I  took off my shoes that morning, I stepped through the open caged door onto the red mats. 

I paused halfway in, "So I got an idea. I think I have my walkout song for my first fight." I paused, hoping for approval. They turned my way, "Yeah", they chorused.

I continued, "So um. It's by CCR. I'm thinking... I ain't your fortunate one. 'Cause I ain't your fortunate son. I am a woman. I am an older, working, middle-class  mom. And I am like the son a father would have wanted. If I were a guy, my Dad would have been in his glory. But here I stand, liberated by my husband and you guys. So, I ain't your fortunate son. So, what'd yah think?"  They both smiled. Peter replied, "Yep, I get it. It's good. And it's you." Phil responded, "Real good choice..."---Jody-Lynn  Reicher

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Completion of Humanness

Completion of Humanness As we arrive to the completion of the first year without Norman, I had decided long before he'd passed that I would continue to do things certain things he liked yet could no longer do. I decided I would not take a day off of fitness.  I would run at least for 500 days in a row. I began that in early 2020.  I'd not be concerned with the distance I'd run. It was the very thing I convinced Norman and the thing that mattered to him, from the very first discussion we had August 11th, 1981, was fitness. I loved that he was a College Boy. He loved that I was a Marine. We tickled each other's soul with such admirations. Later fitness continued as an old discussion from 1994 ...getting outside and to run no matter what. I would say to him, "Run 200 meters, then 400 meters. If it doesn't feel good, stop. Turn around and walk back home and know you did your best. That is all you can ask of yourself." I said this,  knowing he would get dow
2 comments
Read more

Reicher's 2021 Holiday Letter

  11/23/2021... The Reicher Holiday Letter... Yes, finally I'm on time...LOL. As the late November wind whips and the delayed leaves fall to the ground in our neighborhood, I await the first sign of snow. I stand outside, begin a run, do outside chores, bring in the mail and sniff the air for the smell of snow. Yes, humans can smell snow. Just like a spring rain approaching. It is awaiting to provide a cleansing of the dreams that need to be refreshed or re-routed. It’s all how you look at it. Really. Oh, the word ‘really’.   Per a few grammar writing geeks. A good writer is not supposed to use the word, ‘really’. I’ll say it again. Really? There is another word I discovered this year, not supposed to be used in writing by writers. I cannot at this moment remember what word that may be.   But I’m sure, it’ll arrive in my mind as I write this Holiday letter to you all. A reading audience. Where to begin this 2021 Reicher Holiday Letter? I’ll start with our smallest resident. T
Post a Comment
Read more

Owed to a Valentine

What is Love? It's not owed. It's sometimes placated to or for or with. It remains quiet in storms, so that a bit of peace cannot be shattered. It may be that the insides of the other are fought against with it's own ego. In Love, true Love, ego is placed aside, because it's about we. It's about us... All of us. Us in all our entirety. We step back, gathering the view of possibilities.  It's as if we stand atop a mountain seeing the ridges having no end only to meet the sea of sky. That's Love. The willingness to gather all sorrows, all thoughts, all creation and say, "Wow!"  Wow, with glee. At that point, nothing else matters. After a loss of someone whom you loved. As well, if they were part of the essence of your living space, there will be things discovered.  More quiet, less grappling with decisions,  because perhaps they are all yours now. More doing, because in a full Love relationship you share 'stuff'. Stuff like chores. If yo
Post a Comment
Read more