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Jason Goerhing is something of an enigma. He is quiet, somewhat reserved, yet not afraid to engage heavily in conversation when the topic is important to him, or when he feels the subject is important to the person to whom he is speaking. He stands at about 5’6” and is made of pure muscle, often inviting people to test this out with a hard slug to the gut, a tout we wrote off as false bravado, and one that ended in a sore hand. “Well, you see,” he said, “Some people do crunches or twists. Not me, here’s what I do: I lay flat on my back, and I throw up a medicine ball, tense my stomach and just let it hit. Sometimes I’ll do this for close to an hour.” Born to a military family in Sheridan, but spending a good amount of time in Great Falls, Montana as a child, Jason’s childhood was anything but easy. “We moved around a lot, as military families tend to do, you know. And my siblings and I went to schools that kind of catered to military families. This wasn’t always easy, because sometimes in familial situations such as the ones we group in and around, the innate stress of a military career sometimes gets put onto the children of these families, who in turn project it onto other people.” When asked if this ever led to him being bullied, he chuckled and said, “No, no. And that’s mostly because I saw what happened to other people. I, uh, made sure that if there was any conflict between me and someone else to end right then and there.” After high school, Jason moved back to Sheridan and began working as a janitor at Centennial Theater, and later as a regular employee. Goerhing has worked at the theater for close to 8 years, and recently became a manager. Though that’s not why we sat down with him.
“I have studied martial arts from an academic perspective, in terms oflearning about the ideas and concepts and all, since I was about 12. Since about freshman year of high school, so I guess I would have been 15 or 16, I’ve studied the physical side of it.” Jason has studied many schools of martial arts, and has gained a respect and understanding for many eastern philosophies, such as Taoism, Shaolin, and other philosophies often rooted in Buddhism or Zen. In his apartment, there is a corner with candles and incense to help facilitate mediation and introspective thinking. He devotes hours every day to either intense physical training or study. This can include abdominal exercises such as the one mentioned above, yoga, heavy breathing exercises, and shadow boxing (a method of training where one individual throws punches or kicks at no one in particular, sometimes for hours without rest) among others. Goerhing is a certified kick boxing instructor, self defense practitioner, and physical trainer. He is currently studying to obtain a special certification to help “special populations” through physical therapy. These often include neurological and cardiovascular disorders or irregularities. Though his greatest takeaway from his years of study haven’t been academic or physical, “…(martial arts) have really taught me how to empathize. I think it’s really taught me how to see things from a different angle, and allowed me to be able to view things from the eyes of others.”
