Challenge: Memorable Advice

(This post is part of the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. You can find links to other writers' answers over at Long and Short Reviews.)

Prompt: A piece of advice I'll always remember

I'm not sure this technically counts as advice, but at one point I was sitting with a Tai Chi instructor in a living room in Australia... Okay, right, maybe some background is in order here. 

Ages ago, I got involved with an online writing/roleplaying site for Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time called The Grey Tower. At the time, I was still doing a fair amount of martial arts, in particular Tang Lang (Praying Mantis) Kung Fu. (Northern Praying Mantis, if you're enough of Kung Fu geek to be curious.) So one of the things I did was help help people develop their ability to write believable fight scenes. And, as a result, periodically I'd get asked for advice about studying martial arts in real life. 

I'm actually weirdly proud of being able to help with that. One kid was asking about learning swords, and I suggested a couple of things including Aikido, since I thought that it would be an easier sell for his single mom if he could find a good local teacher. He did, and a couple of years later I got a nice email back as he was finishing high school saying that he and his friend had gotten as far as brown belts in Aikido, and thanking me for recommending it. 

And this was similar, except that it was an adult woman in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, and Tai Chi, and an American instructor that she'd convinced to fly in and hold a seminar on using the jian, which is commonly referred to as the "Tai Chi sword". And, of course, as the person who'd helped her make the connection, I was invited also. So Beautiful Wife and I flew down, and I attended a lovely and very educational seminar on swordsmanship while Beautiful Wife (who was pregnant with Firstborn at the time) mostly played tourist. 

So that was how I ended up sitting in someone's living room in Australia watching unrelated swordsmanship videos with a very accomplished Tai Chi instructor. And I forget exactly what it was that prompted it, but at one point I wound up saying, "With no offense meant to your wife, I married the best woman ever." 

He said, "Every man should feel that way about his wife." Which isn't advice, exactly, and I suppose could be stated more generally, but still: it's stuck with me over the years.

Everybody should feel that way about someone in their life.