Far be it for me to compare myself to one of the greatest of all Greek sculptures but looking again at the powerful image of the Seated Boxer – I was lucky enough to see the original in Rome – I identified with this exhausted fighter, battered and bruised and, to my mind anyway, wondering if he has just fought his last fight.
I went back to my kungfu classes this week and really enjoyed the experience until I went just that bit too far. My enthusiasm over my apparent recovery from my brain haemorrhage had, quite literally, gone to my head I think so when I fell on Wednesday night with a jolt, I felt just like the seated boxer with his eyeless, exhausted gaze.
I have been recovering ever since and have decided not to go back to kungfu for a bit – but, like that old battle-wearied Greek, I too, in my uncertainty, feel that one day I will be back.
The boxer should have pride!
Thanks Neil, one of the reasons that that sculpture is so great, I think, is that you can see it in so many different ways. Looking at it again just now I think he had just won that last bout!