Falling in love

Went with JK to the Gerda Geddes Memorial at The Place in Euston on Saturday. The three things I came away with that made the event worthwhile for me were, firstly, hearing and meeting Frank Woods who is writing a biography of GG – a softer man with a bigger heart you're unlikely to meet – he was the only speaker who held my attention (a gorgeous Scottish accent) and the only person in evidence who felt like a Tai Chi practitioner (that is, relaxed, sunk and open). Secondly, hearing in the film on GG, made by Norwegian TV, that GG's teacher in Hong Kong had told her to step gently (or was it tenderly?) so as not to hurt the ground (something all of us should envision – touch gently so as not to hurt the other), and thirdly hearing JK speaking to Harriett Devlin – GG's youngest daughter – and telling her that because he fell in love with Tai Chi he had no choice but to completely abandon himself to it. It's always interesting being out & about with JK and experiencing his exchanges with non-students (although Harriett was his student for a while back in the 1970's). He always manages to give them the essence of his whole teaching in a short sentence like this. Falling in love is a feeling of falling, or floating – the ground disappears – or rather all one's relationships (the one with the ground being the most obvious) are thrown into new focus by the intensity of the openness and connexion one feels with the beloved. I remember once walking back to Clapton from the Angel having seen a girl home, and I could swear that I did the whole walk without touching the ground. When in love one's actions and decisions tend not to result from thinking or consideration but are impelled by primal forces, foolish or otherwise – it doesn't matter. It is a world where there is no alternative to abandonment, or rather non-abandonment would mean a retreat out of the world of love and back into the grim flat reality of normal self-centred affairs. Hearing John talking to Harriett I realised that he left that meagre world for good when he started Tai Chi. He's been falling in love ever since.