A Karate Lesson
- MKA Karate Dojo
- Jul 15
- 2 min read
By: Jason Kraus
Once, I was returning to a hotel when my Uber driver asked why I was visiting Minneapolis. I explained that I was attending a karate seminar led by a friend from overseas I had not seen in a while.
The driver asked a bit about karate and I talked a bit but not much. Though I believe strongly in the value of the art and love to talk about it, no one likes to be proselytized at and anyway it had already been a tiring day. We rode in silence, but I could tell he had questions and before long he asked them.
“What if you were in a bar and someone wanted to fight you,” he asked.
This is a common question and I have a standard response, one based on a technique I used more than once in my youth.

“I’d offer to buy him beer. Then maybe talk to him. I don’t want to fight a person for no reason. They’re going to get hurt and I’m probably going to get hurt and nobody wants that. I don’t want that. I don’t want that for them.
I continued. “Then you get the police involved and lawyers and the legal system. And NOBODY wants all that hassle, you know? No thanks.”
The driver laughed and I did too. We continued for a while in silence until another thought struck like me a bell and in one of those moments of absolutely honest clarity – the kind of which you can only have with a stranger – I talked some more.
“And what if I accidentally kill him? What if my control is off and I maim him? Or blind him? What if he hits his head on the corner of a table or the ground and dies?
“If you train for thousands of hours, with the right intention and in the right way, the training takes over and it just happens. You don’t respond; ‘It’ does.
“What if I kill him?
“I don’t want to kill a person in a fight over nothing. For something stupid as a bar fight? I don’t want that on me and I don’t want that for anyone, or their family.
“No. Buy them a drink or a tableful of shots. Let them call me names.
“Then walk away.
“It’s better than accidentally killing someone for no reason.”
We continued in silence to the hotel then parting, shook hands. He looked at me in a new way. I think we both learned something about karate, about karateka, and about life that night.
I remain grateful for the karate lesson from a perfect stranger. Related: Flowing with Sudden Intensity
Jason Kraus is a lifelong martial artist. Jason spent decades in various martial arts including traveling to and living in both Japan and Korea. He has most recently returned to his first love, Shotokan Karate and trains at Missouri Karate Association.