A Tai Chi Master’s 5 Life Lessons
How a hard-ass old man taught me to live
Edward Hsu was the biggest hardass I ever met. He would quickly lose patience, insult, and belittle me for non-tai chi related subjects. But — yet — I couldn’t ask for a better teacher.
When I was 17, I would attend Ed’s tai chi classes at the local recreational center. Ed had learned tai chi in Hong Kong during the 1950s. The man knew his stuff — and he didn’t tolerate mistakes from his students.
Even before we started our first official class, he was already irritated at me for thinking slow.
“I want to let you know, this is not an easy class. And I’m not an easy teacher.”
He would make my Saturday mornings quite miserable. But despite this, I learned a few life lessons from the old man’s classes.
Lesson 1: Take Things Slow
When I first met Ed, I asked him a question I bet a lot of people wonder,
“Why is tai chi so slow?”
Ed, annoyed, would answer,
Now that’s an interesting question.
Well, why does it have to be fast? Since you’re in America, everything here is done fast. Football is fast…
