The other night I passed by one of my cable channels where a fellow was sitting cross legged on a dock with his eyes closed and his hands pressed against his stomach. The commentator said this fellow was trying to find his “chi.”

At first I thought he said he was trying to find his “cheese,” though I didn’t see a sandwich or a thermos anywhere near him, and I was pretty sure he couldn’t have lost both in his navel, which he seemed to be fixed upon.

Then it was explained — by this commentator’s voice seemingly coming from behind a nearby woodshed — that the “chi” is the center of one’s being from which one gains power to overcome physical restraints. And these folks who look for it believe that it is somewhere in the center of the body. I suppose it’s right behind the navel and not to be confused with cracker crumbs or T-shirt lint.

This fellow kept taking deep breaths and exhaling slowly — kind of like you would do if you were wading into a creek in February to fetch a redhorse sucker out of a gill net. Back when I did that, no one had ever told me about “chi” and that if I could find it, I could tune out the effects of the icy water.

I don’t think the “chi” is a thing as much as it is a condition of the mind. I have never heard of anyone having a ruptured or infected “chi” so it’s pretty obvious that it’s not something you can view in a jar of formaldehyde

The best I could tell — from that voice coming from behind the woodshed — is that finding your “chi” or “energy center” is one of those mind over matter things. Once you find it, you are supposed to be able to ignore pain and perform feats that without your “chi” in gear would be impossible.

In retrospect, I suppose sometimes we may have found our “chi” and didn’t even know it. After all, I had eaten soul food for years and didn’t know that’s what it was until I went off to college.

I remember that time when the meanest sow on our farm got after me when I was trying to separate her from her pigs. It was one of those times when I ran as fast as necessary. It was a moment of great resolve. When she closed in on me, I just put it in another gear. Although I didn’t have time to stop and stare at my navel — the business at hand being rather acute — I suddenly overcame the fact that I previously was too slow to be on the high school track team. Not only did I outrun the sow, I also cleared the gate without snagging my jeans.

Now a friend of mine suggested that this might not have been about “chi” at all — that it was just about being “extremely motivated.”

I could not argue that point. I could only attest to the results.

Supposedly a person who finds his “chi” can walk on hot coals without burning his feet, can take severe blows to the body without sustaining injury and can sleep naked in the snow without getting frostbite.

The problem with all that is that few of us really need those abilities. We can walk around the hot coals, sleep inside by the fire and stay out of bars where two guys have identical tattoos that say, “Trixi loves me best.”

Instead we need a “chi” that lets us endure a whole season of Atlanta Falcons. We need a “chi” that lets us drive in Atlanta traffic and overcome the urge to strangle someone.

And there were a couple of times back there when I needed a whole lot of “chi” to take with me behind the aforementioned woodshed.



Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer, 985-4545, ext. 214. E-mail: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com.