Issue #002: Zen in the Art of Fighting

[Original Newsletter Published on August 30, 2021]

Issue #002: Zen in the Art of Fighting

Welcome to the 2.0 edition of this newsletter from the front lines of my ambitions as a martial artist and author. I'm glad you're here and am exceptionally grateful for your support, interest, and investment in this journey.

If you’re new, welcome. If you’re not, welcome back! However we know each other or however you found this newsletter, I hope sharing some stories and thoughts on a monthly-or-more cadence will inspire you to find and follow some courageous and crazy dreams of your own.

Before we begin, special shoutout to my Patreon Party People

Big props to my new cohort of Patreon patrons from the month of August: Ali F., Erica S., Elise P., and Helena M. Your contribution to the "creative tip jar" powered me through outlining a book proposal and writing my first “competitive” piece of writing for submission into a contest. Thank you for your generous moral and monetary support.

If you'd like to join the Patreon party, unlock exclusive content, special notes, vlogs, and perks from September onward, you can contribute here. Every cent counts.

Let's Dive In

I've spent a lot of energy on writing and training this month, so I’ll set your expectations low for this edition and hope to exceed them. The theme of this second newsletter is Oklahoma, a place I never would have expected to live, let alone visit. If there's one thing you should know, it's this: there's more to the place than cattle, cornfields, and Tiger Kings. 

Gordon McRae in the 1955 film rendition of Rodgers and Hammertein's Oklahoma! In this scene, McRae is singing the opening number and most well-known tune of the show: "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'."

Below, you'll read some field notes from "The Sooner State" from someone who had a 30-year existence on the East Coast largely spent in cities and suburbs within hour of the Atlantic Ocean. 

Time to stop standing on the wall. Let’s get down on it. ​

What has surprised, fascinated, and amused me in OKC so far...

Surprised

Fascinated

  • Despite its reputation as a Stockyards City, OKC has an abundance of vegetarian restaurants. Whether it’s newly trendy, a longstanding rebellion against the town’s meat culture, or something else, I couldn’t tell you, but establishments like Cafe Picasso and Plant are always popping when I drive by, so they’ve made my list of places to try before I leave the city.

  • The staggering prevalence of dispensaries. Medicinal marijuana is legal and weed shops are more prevalent than coffee shops. Every time I think I’m walking past a place for a cup of coffee, it’s not a place for a cup of coffee…The Oklahoma State Government has an updated list of all registered dispensaries and, as of August 25, it’s 158 pages long.

Amused

  • How much the city reminds me of the Jersey Shore, minus a boardwalk: Like the Jersey Shore, there’s some roughness around the edges of OKC, but there’s gold if you know where to look, if you know whom to ask, or if you’re willing to go panning for it. I've yet to find Italian ices or stereotypically Sicilian dudes in OKC, but I've found plenty of snow cones.​

  • Certain powerlifters in the non-BJJ gym where I go to lift a few days a week. First, there’s “Lil’ Debra,” whose ensemble of head-to-toe black is interrupted by a shock of bottle-blond hair. "Lil' Debra" is not so little and can easily squat twice my body weight for multiple sets of ten. Then, there’s a larger woman who vaguely reminds me of a certain villain from a 90s movie that I can't place until it all makes sense when I see her lifting belt: the white leather cinching her waist has two enormous, pink glitter words stenciled on it, “The Trunchbull.” Unlike the eponymous Matilda character, "The [OKC] Trunchbull" antagonizes no one—except maybe the loaded barbell when it hits the ground at the end of a 450+lb set.

In case you haven't seen Matilda (1996), this is "The Trunchbull." The OKC weightlifting Trunchbull is far nicer than this woman, who plays a mean, student-torturing headmistress who gets her just desserts.

Coolest moment in OKC (so far): A Haircut

The last time I got my hair cut was in March, so it had been been five months rather than the six weeks advised by my stylist re: getting a trim. I’d also gotten my hair balayage-highlighted before I left in the spirit of change: change of city and imminent change of lifestyle mapped to a change of hairstyle. I didn’t know the next time I’d be somewhere and able to get a good haircut, so I shelled out big-time with my Boston-based hairdresser, trusting that she would set me up with something that would grow out without looking completely stupid if left unmaintained. Even so, a few months of semi-pro jiu-jitsu training later, I looked like a short-circuited Pikachu, my hair a static electric mess of split brown-blond ends.

I picked The Iron Rose because it was close by, the prices were reasonable, the stylists were well-reviewed, and, if I needed to re-highlight my hair, this place seemed particularly well-regarded for its hair color professionals. The reviews were filled with richly-colored glamour shots of coiffures ranging the full color spectrum. If they could make electric blues and slime greens look good, surely they could make my basic brown look acceptable. 

I’d driven by the place before, a spearmint-colored house with a yoga studio upstairs and a vegetarian cafe next door. I didn’t know what to expect beyond a likely-abundance of hippy, artistic people, but when I walked inside, I felt like I’d just entered a small-scale theme park…

​[Want to read more? Check out the rest here.]​

Hairdresser's chair, greenhouse, or art exhibit? All are fair guesses at The Iron Rose.

Jiu-Jitsu Culture in OKC

The rationale for stationing myself in Oklahoma came down to a single word: Lovato. Rafael Lovato Jr. is a world champion Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner and MMA fighter. A native of Oklahoma City, he owns and operates two gyms in the area, with the headquarters facility located about ten miles north of downtown. It's a gorgeous facility for training and a well-oiled machine as a business. More on the latter some other time. 

While Lovato's instructional videos and reputation were what initially influenced the decision to train here, there's more to jiu-jitsu in Oklahoma than the man who is practically synonymous with Oklahoma City Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Don't get me wrong: taking a class under a world-class Professor and niche celebrity is a very cool and privileged opportunity, one that makes a pricey gym membership a little easier to swallow. But it's the experiences outside of the actual teaching and training that been exceedingly memorable, including:

  • Going out to Calera, Oklahoma ("BFE," the total sticks: a town ~2.5 hours southeast of OKC, population barely over 2,000) to watch one of our instructors at Lovato's and one of my favorite training partners from Houston compete in a superfight promotion. Unfortunately, the promotion was not at one of the area's casinos. It was staged outdoors at a dispensary, specifically, the Top Notch Dispensary. Were it not for jiu-jitsu, I highly doubt I'd have found myself spending a Saturday night driving on the dark, abandoned roads around Lake Texoma (big Jeepers Creepers vibes) or out to late-night tacos with two friends from Houston at a sketchy but tasty strip mall Mexican restaurant.

  • Going out to Sunset Patio Bar where one of the managers, spotting my boyfriend's cauliflower ear, begins chatting the two of us up about jiu-jitsu, invites us to the gym where he coaches, gives us the full lay of the land for training martial arts in OKC, and (last but not least) gives us and a fellow BJJ-training patron a round of shots on the house. Watching drunken diners and very energetic bartenders fist-pump and sing their ways through 'Livin' on a Prayer' and Sweet Caroline' would have been enough to make Sunset into a revisit-able spot. The jiu-jitsu connection was the cherry on top.

Or a strawberry on top. The night at Sunset Patio Bar concluded with customized soft serve at Capitals. 10/10 would recommend.

Writing in OKC

As the above might suggest, for all the flatness and farmland of Oklahoma, there's no shortage of things to write about regarding my time here. When it comes to author-ly activities, aside from posts on @zenintheartoffighting, and some conversations with two published authors who enlightened me about their end-to-end process, the big thing I've been working on is a draft of a nonfiction book proposal (AKA a business plan for my book), along with a few sample chapters to include with the proposal. My goal is to have a really robust proposal by the middle of October and to be pitching literary agents before the end of the year. My moonshot goal is to get an agent that's the Margaret Riley to my Glennon Doyle, or whoever works with Michael Lewis. 

Recent Reflections from the Road

  1. My pure, romantic version of the creative life—of writing prolifically alongside steaming coffee pots and candlelight—will not get me paid. Creative “overnight” success demands business acumen—either having it yourself or hiring for it.

  2. Much like dating advice is easy to give and hard to take, project management is easy for me to do for other people and hard to do for myself (when it comes to my creative work).

  3. Any resilience I've cultivated through training jiu-jitsu should be very applicable to the writing journey ahead, which will be filled with rejections from agents, publishers, and more. I've got to be willing to be the nail until the day I become the hammer.

Sausage Dog's Adventures in the Meat Metropolis of OKC

Snickers had her first grooming appointment of the trip and got a “Report Card” for her session. We were later told that she was unfussy until it came to her paw-dicure. Somehow, one ten-pound dog required the effort of three Petco employees in order to get her front nails trimmed:

A for effort, Snickers.

Closing out

Thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed my second update from the road!

If you want to continue supporting the journey chip some $ in the creative tip jar for exclusive content and perks on Patreon, follow @zenintheartoffighting on Instagram for weekly posts, and forward this newsletter along to one friend you think might be entertained.

Until soon, with love from "The Sooner State",

Erica

P.S. If you’ve made it this far and want to check out the writing contest submission that was low-key mentioned at the top of the newsletter, it’s linked here.

Erica ZendellComment