Madrid

me. My awakening was already in process, and it had nothing to do with anything the western medical system could do for me. Standing against the wall near the elevators with security guards on either side of me, I could think only of how tangible my dream of the poet in me was becoming, and even as I knew my anxiety was real, I was con dent that what I had learned so far about focusing my thoughts and calming myself would serve me well. In fact, the tangible dream could most certainly become a reality. ey released me, with my agreement to take the medicine. e next day I was back to work. Berry, a good friend who had been promoted to management, made a gesture that was as signi cant as the gift of a copy of the Dao De Jing I had received six years earlier. We were standing next to the computerized carousel the company had installed to increase our e ciency.

“Mike, why don’t you start seeing my doctor? He’s Black.”

Indeed he was. I made an appointment, and within a few days we were sitting in his o ce. His name was Herb. I was very clear about my belief that I could do without the medicine, and to my surprise he made an o er I could not refuse. He would take me as a patient, but if he decided I needed it, he wanted my assurance that I would take what he prescribed.

“No problem,” I said. “ e Dao De Jing has been a great help to me.”

“Really?”

It seemed I had found a psychiatrist who shared my enthusiasm, but when he made his recommendations for readings a few weeks later, I was not sure how to respond. After he listened to me expound on my perception of life, my struggles, my hopes, he leaned back and stared at me.

“I think you should read e Tao of Pooh.”

“Pooh?”

“Yes, Winnie the Pooh.”

Amused but not amazed, I bought the book. e playfulness of it I took as an a rmation of Taiji, as it seemed to me that play was an essential part of the art, one which set it apart from other arts whose martial aspects were more apparent. Walking without leaving footprints seemed more playful than knocking out a bull with one punch, as it was said Mas Oyama, a famous karate adept, was able to do. I had no desire to be so unkind to bulls.