I’ve never been in a mosh pit. (I have been in a six-person aikido freestyle.) I’m not one for loud, crowded concerts. But when I read a description of getting into the pit in Lilly Dancyger’s excellent First Love: Essays on Friendship (I received an advance copy for my review, forthcoming in Open Letters Review), I immediately felt what that must be like.
I’ve been trying to write what my black belt test was like, particularly the freestyle, which is when five people attack, grab, and shove you around (in a loving and supportive way). This is very hard to describe for people who have never experienced this exercise we do. My readers simply do not understand the physicality in the way I have written it (so far).
Lilly’s description of the mosh pit, being jostled and shoved into people, avoiding elbows, all in a joyful celebration, reminded me strongly of our aikido freestyle. She writes, “My feet finding the ground only to launch back into someone’s sweaty torso, someone’s waiting hands, shoulders, arms; pushing each other and catching each other and not minding the sharp elbows or the heavy feet or the sudden shoves. Letting the tension be pummeled out of my body.”
She also shows her cousin/best friend how to hold an arm up to protect her face, and puts her body in the way of the elbows and kicks so her cousin is protected. This is what we do in aikido, too—we protect each other physically.
This is a physical way of showing love.
