This blog

This blog is the noticeboard of events for all classes and related courses for my small T'ai Chi School in London and Aberdeenshire, Great River T'ai Chi. Two other contributors, who are instructors for the school in Aberdeenshire, currently add their dates for the classes they run, so they can easily alert students to a change of time or date. I always advise students to check here first, as it is updated much more regularly than my website, though I will attend to that soon!

Other than these dates, all other entries are posted by myself. It has modest aims: this blog is a place where I put what interests me and I feel may be of interest or help to students. Comments are welcomed but are moderated. This is not (and has never been) an open forum or a discussion board, although I am delighted if anything is of interest to anyone out there. It would take too much time and energy following each thread of a forum. I used to do this for a while when in music groups in the nineties, but I prefer interfacing on a 3D level rather than via a computer screen, and besides, I type very slowly.

I do love a good talk about T'ai Chi as much as the next person, especially over a cup of tea, but always face to face; as nuance and tone are often lost in translation to the written word, and so much can be misunderstood. The advantage of face to face is that you can stand up and go: 'Oh I see, what a different Ta Lu' and actually show and share things in real time in the real world. I do love the web, and being able to stay in touch so easily with loved ones far away is a real modern wonder. However, I shan't be committing to a second life yet, I am just beginning to get to grips with the apparatus and operating system of my first life.

There are many fascinating forums for T'ai Chi and martial arts in general all over the net, and several friends frequent them. It is also very easy to start a discussion group for free in a matter of moments on the web, and this could also be a very interesting way for T'ai Chi folk to exchange their many views and opinions... I only wish I had so much spare time as those who post regularly on the discussion boards. When I do get some time I prefer to do my own T'ai chi or cook a big meal for friends and sit around the table together.

What the web certainly has a surplus of is opinion. To a small degree this blog is part of that phenomenon. However, I have one over-riding factor that I consider when I post anything, whether it's dates, links, art, music, poetry, my thoughts or the comments I receive from anyone else. 'Is this helpful, instructive or inspiring to the students?' A link to a delightful video may be just that. A relevant book I have enjoyed will almost certainly get a posting. If I receive a comment that I feel is confusing or contrary to what we are hoping to teach, I choose not to publish for the sake of clarity and to avoid mixed messages. So although I hope to take myself less seriously year by year, I take what my teacher chooses to share with me more seriously. Even in this small blog, I prefer not to publish anything that goes against the spirit or meaning of what he has had the generosity to teach me. That's enough words for now.