Tai Chi for Sixty Plus

shadow of a man, a photo by []Aaroneous Monk[] on Flickr.

The poster caught my attention as I prepared to enter the elevator after a workout at the fitness center: "Tai Chi: moving for better balance". It included a blurb from the CDC which asserted that it was an "evidence-based fall prevention program that helps participants aged sixty and older to improve functional balance and physical performance." My interest was piqued because I'd been thinking of taking a Tai Chi class in the community for quite some time but never seemed to have the time or money to make it happen. As a member of the fitness center I could take this biweekly three month course for free during my lunch hour.

I wondered about the "sixty and older" part though. I'm a forty three year old father of two and husband of one in relatively good health if you don't count an intermittently bum knee that I got when deployed to Iraq six years ago. My enthusiasm for Tai Chi actually came from my time in Iraq. While living on a base outside of Tikrit I participated in some Tai Chi classes at night in the inner courtyard of a building located about a mile from our clinic. It was a winding path mostly traveled in near pitch blackness with stars shining hard and cold overhead. I learned the path at night and probably could not have found it in the daytime.

I only learned the first ten of the sixty plus moves but it was enough in repetition to find a source of solace and stress relief in the flowing motions. Our rustic clinic building had its own internal courtyard that was open to the sky, a common feature in the Middle East. A wide ladder-like structure made out of metal tubing slanted up one side of it and allowed access to the roof. When possible I'd clamber up it and onto the roof as the sun was setting and go through my movements facing the breathtaking spectacle of a desert horizon exploding with color. I don't know that I've ever experienced anything quite like that before or since, like getting a taste of some exquisite and exotic dish with flavors never before imagined.

So, by the time I'd gotten back to my office from the fitness center I decided to go back and see if the "sixty and older" thing was a deal breaker. I talked with one of the managers who was quite sure I could participate and she put me on the list and took my number if that was to change. I felt well on my way to inner peace even with the start date still 2 weeks away, a kind of placebo effect.

On the way back to my office I had a Walter Mitty moment imagining a scenario where a purse snatcher was running towards me from behind, purse in hand, leaving a little old lady crying and purseless on the ground. Before I could turn to see what all the hubbub was about he would slam into me. As I fell forward my training would kick in with the swan-dives-for-bread-crumb move*. Quickly regaining my feet I would swiftly transition into the sweeping-bug-under-the-rug move* ending with the purse snatcher falling flat out on his back and staring up at me stunned. Standing over him and with a bit of swagger I'd say, "Just be glad I'm not over sixty, 'cause then I'd have a cane."


*These are not the names of any actual Tai Chi moves that I know of but a product of my fevered imagination.