Up Down Same Time

One of the Tai Chi concepts that the Master left us was that of ‘Up down same time’. What at first seemed a contradiction soon became clear when we understood that we were to try to stretch the spinal column by moving the body up and down at the same time. Of course the deeper meaning was that we should always keep in balance. This applied not only to the tai chi exercises but to our daily life. Ying and Yang; opposite and equal forces; good and bad; him and her.

Seasoned politicians practice the skill of up/down every time they spin something for us. A good politician can make a lie sound like the truth and even turn truthful statements by the opposition into lies, damned lies! They can raise taxes and tell you how to calculate it so it looks like you are the only one on your block who had to pay more taxes, assuring you that next year yours will go down while your neighbours’ taxes will go up. Balancing the budget at City Hall is a good exercise in up/down as the mandarins try to match revenues and expenses. Any shortfall is loudly blamed on the province (Yang) while any excess in revenue is quietly tucked away in a reserve fund (Ying).

The media however, falls far short of the Master’s dictum, as they seldom match all the bad news with any good news. A good reporter only looks for bad news. But I suppose they can only report that the police caught so and so who was a bad person, not that an officer assisted some elderly person in locating their lost car in the mall parking lot. And the firefighters only make the headlines when they put out a fire, not when they start one. Excepting that one time that a certain platoon captain set fire to the bacon in the stove at the fishing camp.

It is not an easy thing to keep a balanced perspective in our lives. It is difficult to remember that we will need the water content of that snow we had to shovel yesterday to supply moisture for the forest in the spring. It is sometimes difficult to have to buy gasoline at Tuesday’s price because you forgot to buy it Monday – difficult not to cuss the poor pump owner but praise that rich oil executive who only made a bonus of several million dollars last year for getting the oil to the pump. And do not even begin to think about that extra one-dollar service charge on your debt card while the banks posted record profits in millions of dollars or your yang will get all upset.

Known for my left-handed slice in golf, I will occasionally hit one straight to the right (where I had aimed) and launch a perfectly good used Nike ball into places never seen by man. This may have been a balancing effect by nature, but my loud protestations of the unfairness of it all would be calmed by my buddies who would intone in Pat Morito’s voice, “Grasshopper, remember - wax on, wax off”. While they can be forgiven for mixing karate with my tai chi, I still jump up/down in frustration. It is part of my tai chi training.