Tai Chi Like Me

I was horrified when I am walked up to the park and saw an elderly Chinese couple doing tai chi near the slide. Horrified because only yesterday, Josie stood behind a different elderly Chinese man at a different park and mimicked his movements perfectly for 10 minutes while Owen and I stood behind her and watched in awe, horror and amusement.

There was no room to stand behind the elderly Chinese couple. Their backs were to the fence and their fronts were to the playground that we were fast approaching.

My first inclination was to say something to her, to remind her of yesterday and tell her it wasn't okay to do that again, even though I laughed hysterically the last time she did it. I didn't have time in the few yards until we got to the park to explain that it was okay to laugh behind people's backs but not to their faces. Maybe she will forget or maybe she will be so busy with the bags of sand toys that we lugged from our house.

For a while my planned work. I dumped the sand toys in the opposite corner and situated them so their backs would be to the couple. The couple continued their movements unphased by the roudy toddlers who had infiltrated their sacred ground.

I don't know much about Tai Chi. So I can't say for certain whether the elderly man had an allergy attack or if the loud noise was part of the ritual. But suddenly, repeatedly and loudly he made a noise at the end of a particular movement.

The invisible wall I had tried to put up between Josie and the couple was shattered. She immediately turned around and smiled as if to say, "hi, don't i know you? weren't you at the park yesterday."

Fortunately she remained seated and kept her arms low and by her side. But sure enough she was copying their movements. And fortunately not the sound.

But a few movements into her copy cat Tai Chi, Josie looked at me shyly and stopped without even so much as a dirty look from me.

She went back to the digging and occasionally peered back at the couple, taking mental notes but no physical action.

I was so proud that she already knew the difference between copying Tai Chi behind someones back and doing it in front of their faces.