Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Sharing Knowledge

Doing Tai Chi means you have a body of knowledge that you can share with other Tai Chi practitioners. This has opened up a lot of doors and magic moments.

Just up the road the other day was a family practicing Tai Chi. It was a different style to mine, but still it was Tai Chi.

I respectfully watched (much to their astonishment, as they were Asian and I am a "gwailo" westerner). Then I did my form - again to their astonishment. I could hear the father occasionally commenting on something.

Later as we talked (the daughter translating for the father) we swapped a few ideas. The daughter was the more talkative. What is the difference between our forms, she asked. I replied: We don't lean. Oh? she exlaimed and started thinking hard.

I've had dozens of these magic moments in my Tai Chi career. Might tell some more stories later - there is a classic of me in Taiwan approaching a big Tai Chi contingent in the park. Stay tuned.