Lessons from an Insect

I had the strangest experience ever at the Dallas seminar this past weekend. I was in the gymnasium lying down as I watched Vladimir perform a punching demonstration. I stood up and went over to help a few guys with the work when I felt something on my leg. At first I thought I just caught a leg hair on my pants or something. I kept teaching but I felt it again, worse this time. I scratched my leg but it felt like it was spreading. I had not idea what it was so I pulled up my pant leg and out came a wasp. The wasp then flew onto the back of my shirt. I remained still while Jack, a friend of mine, calmly walked up scooped up the wasp and released it outside.

After repeated stings I opted to sit out the afternoon session and just watch. Jack and I got to talking about wasps and how to deal with them without getting stung. Having a wasp in my pants was a fluke but there was a guy in the seminar actively swatting at another wasp flying around. Jack and I agreed that that guy was asking to get stung. If he would have left the wasp alone it would have left him alone in turn.

Jack told me that wasps can sense your fear and agitation which gets them ready to defend themselves and more likely to sting you. He went on to say that if you are calm you can pick up a wasp or bee in your hand without being stung because it doesn't feel threatened by you. As Jack was explaining "Wasp-Fu" I was looking around the room at all the different people training and how dealing with a wasp is exactly like dealing with attackers in Systema.

This was the first time in my life that I have been stung by a wasp and about 2 years ago was the first time I was stung by a bee. As a child I have always froze when bees or wasps flew around and the eventually flew off without stinging me. Early on I learned that they don't want to sting you--in fact this costs the bee its life--so if you don't give them a reason to sting you then they won't.

Likewise there are dangerous people you might run into, ready to fight if you give them a reason to. If you move on and don't agitate them they move on peacefully. They attack because they are afraid and attacking is the best defense. By staying calm yourself you can calm down the other person, either preventing them from attacking in the first place or in the middle of their attack keeping them from tensing and being able to work and subdue them easier.

The same people I saw swatting at the wasps in the seminar were the same people I watched reacting to attackers with excess tension making the attacker more aggressive and harder to handle. (Like the wasp the attackers responded differently to the fear of the defender). These students were increasing their own trouble because they were afraid.

The simple lesson from I learned again from the wasp incident is that if you stay calm and keep your cool you can negotiate around dealing creatures, human or not.