My little brother, Jake (The Cherry Danish), just earned his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is a well-deserved promotion. Belts aren’t given out in this discipline. Jiu-Jitsu is a meritocracy. You earn your keep. You work your ass off. You help your teammates. You don’t quit until the job is done. One needs to have a certain level of proficiency at every level. You aren’t promoted unless you have understood the art to a deeper level. There are plenty of Jiu-Jitsu meatheads who will never gain deeper enlightenment. They may have trained for years, and as a result, have a better chance at whooping some ass; this doesn’t mean they grasp the art.
My brother has been an exemplary white belt. I have the utmost faith he will continue to be an exemplary blue belt. He learned to shut up as a white belt. Now, he has to learn how to speak up as a blue belt.
We train at three different levels. We train to be stronger; we train to be more efficient; we train to become better people. Jiu-Jitsu can be like going to temple. You are in a community of people who are trying to get deeper understanding. You are all there to push each other to be the best version of yourself. Community is the cornerstone of this endeavor. You can’t train it in a dark basement by yourself. You need to step onto the mats, endure a trial by fire and learn through failure.
The most sought after belt is probably the blue belt. As a white belt you are just beginning. While this is a fantastic place to be it isn’t a place you want to stay. You wait for the blue so you can consider yourself a Jiu-Jitsu guy. The blue belt is your entry into the culture.
Once one earns a blue belt they are no longer just being led; they are leading. They are now given the responsibility of representing Jiu-Jitsu to the best of their ability (on and off the mats). Blue belts need to look at all white belts as their personal quest. They need to help these beginners on their path toward blue. They were just there. A new blue belt is not all that different from what he was a day before, but he will grow to become far greater.
The blue belt signals how the community will relate to the wearer of it. The recent blue belt may have doubts about his promotion, but this is normal. It’s normal in all fields. The old saying, “fake it until you make it” rings true. Nobody gets to a new place mastering it upon arrival. We cannot become better unless we see where we were before. “Better” is a relative term, and that means we need something to compare it to. We all need to look at ourselves from a day, week, month, year or years before. Then we can gain a better idea of the journey thus far. This informs our present, and prepares us for a better future.
So, I applaud my brother. I am beyond proud to have my brother represent this precious thing. Jiu-Jitsu has been my temple, and a temple is only so grand as the people in it. My brother now has the duty of stepping up, and not shutting up. He will no longer just be taking. He is a Jiu-Jitsu guy now, and that means he has a say. So, he will need to use his voice to help shape the future. He earned this duty through hard work, humility and insatiable curiosity. I wish my blue belt brother all the greatest treasures of this precious thing.