For years, the closing line of Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo has haunted me: "... for here there is no place that does not see you. You must change your life."

Every step of my journey from white belt to black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has been the same refrain: You must change your life.

Great art will do that to you. It will constantly remind you that the greatest expression of human joy, ambition, and spirit is to aspire.

But ultimately, this life's work of aspiring and becoming falls to the individual. It is you and I who must do the becoming. Even now, as a black belt, I have so much more to become.

Some weird thoughts and reflections on all of these things in this week's BJJ Meditations.

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Archaic Torso of Apollo, by Rainer Maria Rilke: https://poets.org/poem/archaic-torso-apollo

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