My Annelies Marie and Krav Maga

I SAW "FIGHT QUEST" one evening on the Discovery Channel that featured the guys taking on the challenge to learn and apply Krav Maga in 10 days.

Now, Krav Maga is the fighting technique that the Israeli Defense Forces have developed, battle-tested and have continually over time refined (and is still presently refining) into a reflex-based defensive art that is said to be as simple as it is effective in allowing a person to survive a physical assault or assaults (as in multiple assailants) against the self.

I've done some martial arts myself and after going through some of them presently subscribe mainly in Morihei Ueshiba's art of Aikido both in it's philosophy of peace and the harmony of forces as well as in it's circular techniques of reversing and controlling the flow of forces that an opponent unleashes against the self.

I utterly hate violence (the unmitigated and lawless kind) but am under no illusion that I am immune from it and I understand that my darlingest Annelies Marie in her life and times have also understood this fact. I make the distinction, however, from fighting sports like UFC and Judo both of which I like because of the courage and discipline of their practitioners.

I also understand that Krav Maga would have been quite useful had it been developed and applied against the Nazis by those who steadfastly believe in the sanctity of life during my darlingest's life and times, especially by her own Jewish people as well as those of us human beings who are so inclined and gifted by Almighty God with the talent and ability to fight the defense against those that fight against our holy innocents.

Now, I thought about my darlingest's temperament and for a moment thought whether she would be one to practice a specific form of marital art like for instance, Krav Maga. It's true that my darlingest Annelies Marie is observably quite fiery as well as headstrong at times as I can gather by her Diary and thought these were qualities that were martial and so compatible with the acquisition of martial skills but then again I also thought about her intimate dependency on her Pim's protective fathering to see her through most of the toughest times that they all shared in the Secret Annex most especially during the Allied bombings of Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

While, my darlingest (and Margot, too) was a really hard-working, strike-anywhere, steadfastly committed and at times, fiery individual, I have come to the conclusion after some thought that these feelings came not from a will to fight but from a will to love and be loved and that her most of her angst came not from her anger but from her pain; a very personal pain of not being completely understood.

Indeed, our Anne Frank grew wise beyond her years, for our Almighty God has blessed her so and in so doing has blessed countless other lives like mine, but on the question central to this meditation about whether my darlingest would have liked to learn and advance in the application of a martial art such as Krav Maga, I think not.

Annelies Marie Frank would have served the life of our humanity in a different way, as a cherisher and not a fighter. She would have made us laugh to bear up our courage against war and war's ambition and tended to our wounds afterwards with just as much courage as soldiers who fight in the front lines of battle. She would have fought the absolute defense just the same as anyone who has ever believed in the one indivisible peace but only from a different front line, in battles where it really matters, in the ones fought within the human heart.

Come to think of it, she's still fighting with us today.

To conclude, while it is nice to think that my darlingest would have been a great Krav Maga practitioner (like the nice lady in the "Fight Quest" episode), it would be nicer and more real for me to think that there are countless other people, men and women, who are likewise equipped with Krav Maga and other fighting skills who would have gladly applied themselves in her defense and by extension, in defense of the sacred life of God's creation and in particular to the life of our shared humanity as a whole - and still will today: I would, wouldn't you?

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

IF YOU CAN NOT BE TRUSTED with the life and good of even one of the very least of our Lord's poor, those who constantly pine for God's love and righteousness, how can Christ trust you with anything else?