Karate downs and ups

Thursday night was one of the most painful I had (would have written it up then, but given LJ's condition and my lack of access, I didn't bother).

Elayna's sensei temporarily demoted her to white belt.

It wasn't without warning, and it shouldn't have been a surprise. She'd been putting in less than half-assed efforts during the last couple of weeks, and he'd been asking her to try harder. Her punches and kicks didn't even have a semblance of effort, and she wasn't working on her katas.

Needless to say, though, she was heartbroken, lack of effort or not. She cried -- bawled, actually -- on the entire walk home. And worse, I had to beat down every one of my instincts to just hold her and agree that this was unfair, and say that it would all get better. It wasn't unfair, and as I explained to her, her yellow belt wasn't a gift. It was something she had earned. And if she wasn't worthy of it, she could lose it. She was truly as upset as I'd ever seen her that night, and was talking about never wanting to go back to karate, how much she hated it, etc. I didn't respond to those comments, nor did shadesong when we got home and told her what happened. Elayna ate dessert, played on the computer until she was feeling a bit better, then went to bed. We all agreed we'd talk more about it on Friday.

When we were leaving the house on Friday, she back-kicked the door open, and explained that she wanted to get her kicks perfect to impress Sensei. That's when I knew things were ok. She understood that quitting wasn't the way to react to a setback, and to keep going. We never even talked about karate that afternoon.

And today, in spite of an initial reluctance to go to class, once she got there, she worked her butt off, and showed that she was capable

And at the end of class, when Sensei had them close their eyes, he brought out her yellow belt and tied it back around her. She showed that she can make the effort, and I'm damned proud of her.

Now, of course, the question is, can she sustain that effort. But she's talking like she's genuinely focused on her blue belt, at least for now.

Two comic notes

First, Jay Faerber's Noble Causes, the comic that's made superheroes fun again, will have a special out in a few months called Noble Causes: Extended Family, featuring short stories by the following combinations of writers and artists:

Jay Faerber & Mike Hawthorne
Geoff Johns & Brent McKee
Phil Hester & Sean Murphy
Eric Stephenson & Todd Nauck
J. Torres & Tim Levins
Brian K. Vaughan & Mitchell Breitweiser
John Layman & Pat Quinn
Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning & Anthony Williams
Gail Simone & Andres Ponce

I'd rather see no one but Jay write his title, but these are some mighty fine writers and artists.

And second, the awesome Carla Speed McNeil, creator of the most unique comic ever, Finder, will be drawing the next arc of King and Country! Rucka and McNeil on a comic together! Woohoo!

(the reason I dropped K+C early on, in fact, was that the art made almost every character look alike, a royal pain in any spy story; I've got no such worries with Carla).