I'm in a martial arts class. Our teacher was a mercenary swordswoman, though she's not teaching anyone swordplay these days. Most of us, she just gives general directions for independent study--"and stop trying to perfect your technique or defeat your opponents! This isn't an age of duels."

She shows us how she'd get through a room of hostile guards--the entire class against her alone! Fires a dart off to one side, not worrying exactly who she hits or what injury, just causing a distraction and getting a third of them defensive and helping their wounded comrade; then she slips through others with similar general tricks, adjusting instantly and instinctively as she goes, utterly focused on reaching her goal alive. She's unbelievably fast--but not precise. She's barely aiming!

So what IS she doing? She's massaging this room of enemies, as a whole, and the pressure she's using isn't blows or blades but their feelings, the feeling of danger--using it to push them into a configuration letting her pass.

The lunch break turns into a celebration. A huge craggy mercenary captain just came home, after a long contract. He and his sweetheart, a small, fast, catlike girl, clinch and kiss and half-spar, half-dance; we all stop amazed at their speed--and beauty. Like our teacher, they needn't plan or think. Spontaneous!

NOTE IN THE MORNING

• Martial art: probably flirting. Today I saw a couple flirt freely and unselfconsciously. Not me! Most of my adult life I was too sick to date, so I'm decades behind most of you; I need groundrules you take for granted. But it's simple inexperience, not trollishness, not a refusal to learn--and it may not just be others mistaking me for a troll. It may be me.

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