Carl Setzer

This evening was spent  With dearest friends that I love  Training: my passion 

As a parent, I've witnessed many moments of adoration by other parents. Last night, at my dojang's blackbelt awards ceremony (my wife and son both received their belts) I was struck again by parental devotion. Watching my fellow parents, with grandparents, beam with pride at their child's accomplishment was both delightful, and a little sad. Decades ago now, I got to do some projects that helped street involved youth. In that process, I heard stories, terrible stories of (dare I say) evil parents. One of my friends from those days, an Episcopal deacon, shared with me once the power of this juxtaposition. We were sitting next to each other at our church's children's pageant. She pointed out to me the parental adoration. And her deep experience with it's opposite. This, as you would expect, colored her view of such events. I have puzzled about this, too, ever since. How does a human get to be so monstrous? Vicious sociological cycles? Some sort of deficiency wi...

For the past few years, taekwondo has been my main side activity. The only larger pieces of my life have been work and writing; perhaps it's tied with photography. So, I thought it good to share some of what I'm experiencing here. Most delightful has been weightloss. I've managed to drop around 20 pounds since I started. This is more than the martial art, as I've worked hard to increase my fitness level, but it has been the central activity. And I've developed better balance and strength. My whole family participates, so it's been particularly joyful. Plus all three of us have developed good friendships with our fellow students. So, I leave you with a few things I'm most proud of. Above, you see my red-belt test results. And, below, is a video of my board breaks for the same test.