The Foreign Service Journal, June 2009

F O C U S O N F S R E F L E C T I O N S M Y B LACK B ELT J OURNEY 22 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 9 aekwondo: literally, “the art of kicking and punching.” It didn’t sound like the kind of skill I needed to learn at the age of 40. I was more a guitar-playing, read-a-good-book kind of guy. And as a For- eign Service officer at the consulate in Mumbai, just getting through work and adjusting to a new culture put more than enough on my plate. It was 2003, and we were leading busy lives in a frenetic city. We’d gone through a nuclear scare that year when I N T AEKWONDO , ONE PRACTITIONER LEARNS , IT ’ S NOT THE DESTINATION THAT MATTERS BUT THE JOURNEY . B Y S COTT B. T ICKNOR T Pietari Posti