Swords

Lev loved swords. He had a decent collection of them. We were never thrilled about his hobby, but he took good care of them and never used them unwisely, so over time we came to realize that it was okay. We were sure one day that one of his friends would rat us out and we would get a nasty call from their parents, but it never happened.

Jaal liked swords as much as Lev. This was something they bonded over. Another reason we let him collect them.

Lev also had some wooden practice swords, called Bokken. They are used for ancient Japanese sword-fighting drills. He had a book of the basic exercises. He had trouble getting motivated to do them, because it was hard to tell if he was doing it right, so I agreed to coach him. We would go outside if the weather was nice enough. I would look at the pages and have him get in the correct stance, and then I would describe the movement. He was decent enough at it, but patience was not his strong suit. He would skip some of the warm-ups, and wanted to get right to the advanced exercises. I would get a tad frustrated, since I wanted to follow the book closely, but Lev was never one to follow rules and order. No matter what, I always liked being out there with him. The wrestling, the boxing, the sword-fighting, and the boffing were things that he loved to do, and I am glad we had a chance to do them together.