Review of
Literally fighting back from a divorce
This is a tale of fighting back from the pain of a divorce and much less contact with your children by becoming a fighter. Simpson was an engineer running his own company and married with two children. Suddenly, at the age of thirty-six he was divorced and uncertain, in his own words he was in Crazyland. People cope with such stress in many ways; in the case of Simpson he began training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
When he started, he
was being humiliated over and over again by people that were physically
unimpressive. Yet, over time his body started to harden and his mind began to
organize so that he became more and more of an emotionless grappler that could
maintain focus and react quickly. Simpson accepted the bruises and losses as a
necessary rite of passage as he slowly rose up the various belt rankings.
Although there are a
few women mentioned in this book, they can generally be categorized as his
ex-wife and women that are either dates or potential to actual sex partners.
This is a book about guys that engage in controlled fighting and a good deal of
uncontrolled drinking. This is best summed up by the comment on page 202, “A
good friend will bail you out of jail. But your best friends will be in jail
next to you saying ‘Damn, that was fun!’” There are several short sections
describing situations where a person trained in jiu-jitsu was able to defend
themselves or stop a crime in progress.
This book is about a
journey through the strenuous times after a divorce and the failing of a
business in the recession of 2008. While Simpson does not ever seem to truly
emerge from Crazyland, the last chapter before the epilogue is about a bar
fight, it is quite a journey, one that many men will envy.
No comments:
Post a Comment