Every Stroke I Paint Will Be Alive

“Nothing I did before the age of 70 was worthy of attention. At 73, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am 86, so that by 90 I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At 100, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at 130, 140, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive.”

Katsushika Hokusai

Inspiring words. But how can we ever come to grasps with our true understanding of what it means for us to be alive when hardly any of us have time free from the immense struggle of day to day survival to think beyond our next step, beyond the next school lunch for our children, the next dollar to cover health care, the price of a tank of petrol. Philosophising is great for those with the luxury to sit back and contemplate. All the platitudes about stopping to smell the roses,

Obviously this does not apply to me. My issue is too much time on my hands and too much money in them.

E@L