Middle Medicine

The Chinese word “Qi” (氣) is greatly misunderstood. Often translated as “energy”, its real meaning has many more facets than that. One sinologist insists that its best translation is “influence”.
I was walking through downtown Toronto yesterday evening, and as I finished crossing an intersection, eastbound, I stepped onto the sidewalk and almost ran into a man going southbound. I politely stopped myself and moved out of his way, and he continued on at his clip, as did I after he had passed. After a few meters I looked back and saw this gentleman, seemingly looking around for the first time, in the middle of an intersection which had only just turned green in his favour.
It happened that at that moment there was little traffic, but I thought to myself that had traffic been different, this man might have found himself part of an accident. As I walked along I considered some of the benefits of rudeness, and in particular of the lack of awareness that my politeness had allowed this man to continue to engage in.
At this point, some of you may be saying “karma” – I would agree.