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You cannot just expect for an arena to be set up for battle the moment you arrive. There are no lights, no stages, no crowd, no circumstances.

Sometimes you need to level the playing field and set up some boundaries before allowing each other to strike next.

That just means setting some fair assumptions about what a discussion is intended to accomplish. You do not set up an arena in order to have a picnic, so if you’re going to argue a point, then make sure it is the time and place to do so.

Understand the boundaries of a discussion you are having. There are in and out of bounds for any topic.

In the topic of arguing a point, there are bounds to operate within that will yield success. However, we often take many rabbit holes down into thinking errors when we choose instead to focus on arguing for arguing’s sake.

When you are fighting battles and not in an arena you are being a bully.

Warriors fight within the context they do and they achieve honor because they fight within the specific context of a cause for their country. A warrior who fights battles no country is asking them to fight is a rogue samurai looking to get stabbed back for their troubles so they can see what it feels like.

It’s one thing to forge a sword that can be sharpened and strengthened into battle, but it is another thing to consider there are plenty of reasons not to. So if you must waste anyone’s time to prove a point by catching the flow of life to create tension, then it better be a damn good one.

Otherwise, you’re just showing off your sword for no damn good reason but to get attention for it instead of appreciating it as your own. This is why coming to battle without an appreciation for what you have is a requisite for failure as you walk away empty-handed when you lose. At least you can feel good about the glint of your perspective when it is appreciated and handled like it is your own to wield. Don’t just play with it, use it. And well.

Practice with it, strike it upon things that are easy for it to accomplish so you can feel more confident taking bigger swings on. However, we tend to get so focused on the beaming of our blades that we don’t catch them as brittle in the sun for so much exposure to the elements. When there is a perspective that has been overdone everyone can read it in the room. This causes your sword to break off the second you sheathe it in your desperate attempts to look good. So know when to put it away at times and give it a break already.

We can all be a bit too much and when we show ourselves a bit too much then we start to get a little on people’s nerves. What was once a matter of hilarity in green is now ashes you’re trying to get one last hit off of that leaves the throats of others dry with response. Don’t be that person.

If you’re trying to put on a show at every turn, people will catch the show the first time around but will pick up on the heroics needed to keep such a front going when it causes inconsistencies in how we interact with others. People can see a front when they see it demonstrate an unyielding awareness to itself in the moment. A person fronting is a person denying their ego for what they’re doing, which is trying to look good for others instead of getting to the point of a matter, which often has nothing to do with themselves.

But for a warrior, you wouldn’t know better. You’re so caught up in your warrior lifestyle at times it can cause friction in situations where people are not used to being around a warrior. Frankly, not a lot of people have the emotional depth beyond a kiddie pool of emotional intelligence to deal with the weight that comes with maintaining a front. It requires investment into your bullshit instead of the other attractions at the theme park of life experiences. Other attractions that are better use of their time and money.

This is why we only call people to the arena when we have something to show. Otherwise, we are just a person with a sword walking around a festival of life, choosing to participate in the joy and fun that comes from experiencing one another when wars are not being fought and trauma is not to found. Just because others cannot see your trauma does not mean it did not happen nor do they need to know it did.

They just need to know they are safe with you, as any human would.

Safe enough to welcome into their own arenas so you may spar and clash your perspectives together in explosive color to move yourself away from the grayscales of life we all hate. Order. Rules. Systems. Processes. The DMV.

So keep this in mind, it’s not all about you. It’s not about you, your fights, your battles, your wars, your journey, your destiny. It has nothing to do with you. The universe could give a fuck if it could, but it doesn’t give a shit, so thanks for playing and have a good day as you leave the park and realize life is not a show to show up for but a life to live and lead by.

The best of swords for one to wield are the ones that can be put down and to rest when they no longer serve their purpose. Say thank you, for they got you to your exact moment where you can look at your battles and smile to yourself. You won. Now witness yourself as winning.

Now get the fuck off the stage for the next winner.

We’re all winners in life and when it is your time to win you get to, but you are not always winning, you can’t always win, and if you think life is something to win then you are playing a game called Narcissism, where you get to be winner to everything.

So learn when to take a seat. An arena is not just meant for warriors, it is meant for all kinds of acts and talents. Not everyone is interested in swordplay and, when they are, it is your time to shine. But otherwise life is about witnessing others through their acts and appreciating them for what they were able to pull off, regardless of the privilege that got them to the point where they could make such a spectacle of life as it were. A warrior has to go through a life of austerity and this can yield a lot of jealousy towards the otherwise hedonistic who are completely self-expressed in their desires to satisfy and gratify their one true savior, themselves.

Something to admire of the more extreme brands of hedonites is the fact that they make their religion themselves. There is something to remark at how such people can choose their life in such a way that everything operates in relation to themselves. They are the sun and everyone, everything, revolves around them.

But this is the universe and our sun is not the center, your sun is not the center, and you are not the center of whatever arena we are framing the universe inside of such that we can find its center.

So in the context of an arena, who fucking cares? The people attending, that’s who.

What you pay for with your time shows what you care about, what shows you like, and what more you’d like see of life from a circus master named Destiny and their lovely assistant, Karma. When you choose to pay entry for the kinds of shows you yourself talk shit about, then you need to see yourself as a fan of your own bullshit and judgment instead of wondering what the fuss is all about. Life isn’t for you to get, it’s for you to feel.

So feel good, partake in life’s experiences. Show up for them, not because it is expected of you but because you have something to gain for yourself than being more than just present on an attendance log saying you did enough. Be there and be yourself, because everyone knows a masc for a mask when they see one.