Inspiration for a Lifetime
A little more than a year ago, a friend of mine told me about her kid. I mentioned her in one of my posts on barefoot walking A PhD in philosophy, this lady does some intriguing studies on biomechanics, myofascial release as well as engaging in various aspects of natural health and foraging wild plants. The way she described her son, reminded me a lot of myself, specially when I was a kid. When I met him, I was intrigued by his energy and enthusiasm and surprised because he looked so much like me when I was a kid, except for the nose. Which mine took a couple of hits in my sparring training and broke once. He couldn't focus on anything for too long and kept getting super excited about details. If something would captivate his interest although, he could really get immersed and delve into various aspects that made up a skill or a craft. When guided he's a fast learner and only needed to be shown something once and got a the hang of it right away. With the world so big to a young man like him, it yet seemed to feel so small with that much of enthusiasm and ease. It felt like nothing was impossible with so much power to explore this whole universe around him. I could relate so much.
On a sunny day, I took him to paint at close to a river where it was legal to paint on walls and gave him a little workshop on fill ins and outlines. Another activity where he again exhibited the skill of independence and practical application as well as wanting to do things his own way. At every step, I thought that it was me who is learning instead of him.
About a week later during a cold winter day with gray skies I met up with a friend to paint.
I went to paint a piece at -5 degrees for a collage collaboration with @shimozurdo. He really is someone on hive that I regularly talk to, chat and wish I could hang out with and paint one day. In real live the guy is also such a humble character who doesn't just inspire me with his art. He is a application developer, a father and one of the people who make me love our communities here.
As @shimozurdo lives in Mexico and he painted a dragon coming out of a portal. I wanted to paint Rane (the red shinobi character in my story), who meets with shimo's dragon. I had a really hard time with the cold as I suffer of a peripheral neuropathy and the cold in winters can strongly inhibit my muscular functions. After my body bailed on me, I basically withstood and finished using my left hand for the white and blue colors. My hand swollen in pain, with heavy breathing any dizziness I almost vomited but bit my way thru it anyways. I wasn't too happy with the outcome but sent it anyways. @shimozurdo made a collage immediately. Kindly note that the beneficiaries of this post are split three ways with your support.
After leaving the wall that day, I passed a cultural youth center, which is also home to many dancers who practice breaking and dancing to some seriously great music, that can't stop a guy like me moving to warm myself back up. After an hour drenched in sweat, I realised how much I missed the dancing and that I had almost entirely quit dancing apart from some random visits to clubs or concerts since 2010. I would train regularly in Mumbai, India with some of the first Indian breakers occasionally. Since I was gonna get visited by two dancers representing India at two major events who are teachers at @quest-skool, it all gave me additional dance fever for this period during the DPC Jam.
Of course I had to revisit the wall to take a picture for the #hive-127039. A Hip Hop community on hive one can subscribe to, that reblogs Hip Hop related posts for elaborated music, poetry and vocalism, Graffiti and visuals, dance and martial arts, plant based food and olfactory sensing, science and consciousness.
A little while later @shimozurdo even made a post about where he painted mehere, where he made a portrait of me. I gotta admit that I was really moved. I mean when did anyone decide to make a portrait of you last? Specially when it's someone's talent you really believe in.
I wanted to share that image again here with a link to the post in case you missed it.
Me and the little ninja bro ended up hanging out a couple of times. He was over at my studio and made an instrumental using some hardware synths. We started training breaking at the local dance studio and we went painting twice. He seemed to enjoy painting a lot and felt so inspired to make music. He would send me music he made on his desktop and even his phone or tablet using apps. The sentiments that came from him, was simply that the impossible is untried. Full of the power to manifest what he envisions. For a minute it really made me stop and think. So unconditioned, uncontaminated and inspiring, this kid would spark inspiration in me with his ingenuity, that remade me feel like he showed me something many of us forget when we grow up. At the age of ten, this kid really surprised me with the motion of his lines and feeling for dimension on paper and a great auditory sense. I could feel the movement within the stillness of the images he created as well as his excitement for gaming and science.
When we went for dance practice, walking around the block, I was asked a total of 14 times or more by various people if he was my son. That kinda made me feel really proud. I noticed that he didn't like that, because he already has a really cool dad. I kinda started to call em bro, but it was as if we smiled at each other and that just happened. I guess his mom gets annoyed by two kids running around the house when i'm over.
The fact that this kid takes things into his own hands, likes independence and takes charge of the power to learn things by himself, makes him excel at almost everything. Various graphic design softwares, a strong interest for science and a great sense for aesthetics partially gave me the feeling I was hanging out with much more than just some kid. This kid has skill and great potential.
I learned a strong lesson of being unconditioned, trying out and exploring new ideas without vocational associations of a particular calling. It made me revisit music I did 15-20 years ago, when I was still untainted and used to key map samples, change pitches and discover things that I thought at that time no one could come up with.
The lesson of meeting this kid taught me even more later. It reminded me of all the artists I liked from the 80s in those rare funk vinyls that I used to buy, because they were hard to come by in the mid 90s. That's because the masses were accustomed to acoustic instruments and only few really liked those rare disco tracks that everyone likes today from the beginning and end of the 80s. One could say that a lot of the music that came out back then was innovative and happened because some machines would get spooky hardware errors with which many strange arpeggiator sounds and glitches created were sounds they went with it. No wonder some of the hardware instruments and the music from that time would only sell at premiums as rare and limited edition 10 years later and are known as original vintage modules and vinyl today. At the time most people probably found it strange.
Maybe some of you out there are doing something your friends find strange? They might even suggest you to do it differently. What the masses like or what sells might be a trend because of marketing, but it does not always mean that it's innovative. I think children who just do because they feel and tune into something, is a child that many loose within themselves, when they're imposed with the standard status quo concepts as a norm.
Just a week ago I was hanging out with @needapencil, who was working on a Graphic. Being a Graphic designer, I asked if it was actually the standard way. I got a no. It was funny to me, because there are always multiple ways do something and some dogmatic Graphic designers would label some approaches as illegal and against all aesthetics. Surely that will have a reason. At the same time I believe that room for exploration and trial and error can give so much insight about other approaches? At the same time I feel it's important to have an opinion from someone whose actually good at something and learned it in a professional structure with fundamentals and basics, before expanding into the infinite realm of possible creative and vascular growth.
Source
Taking a dump the standard way
What truly fascinates me was that growing up going to India every couple of months on vacations with parents, I never really liked these Indian toilets, because one had to squat to take a dump. Visiting my two friends, they had a squat piece on top of their toilet seat, simply because it a healthier option to take a dump like that. It surely better for your rectum to squat. A lot of problems that people get with their backs, come from excessive relief on their lower spines due to the invention of the seat. Going back to squats regularly can help anyone cope with the inevitability of back problems arising from wearing bricks on your feet with stiff soles and landing on your heels.
Now days Indian toilets are changing to western ones...
That being said, there are several amazing revelations that came to me just by visiting this amazing family that I love sharing with the natural medicine folk. Really liked the idea of communal living and being around a kid that just grows up so natural and organic. He really made me to connect to my inner child even more. I don't know if that's a really good thing in our time and age and I don't know how long I can still get away with that ;)
Last but not least I really wanted to mention someone else here. @nowargraffitis
A bee from Berlin, This dude is such an awesome artist and a really good friend. He invited me to his home twice and is someone who will save on food if he could rather get his hands on a tube of acrylic paint instead. I have so much delight just thinking about him. I wish we lived in a time where such people would get funded to simply do what they want because it's people like him who inspire so many others.
After a visit and knowing that what really makes this new web for me, are the communities and the people, I'm someone who really likes to meet these amazing, one of a kind individuals we have on here. @nowargraffitis styled the four letters of my legal graffiti name, aka the name of my shinobi style comic who is actually a kung fu style 'yanje' rather than anything resembling something strictly Japanese.
Last but not least
Sharing my arithmetic method and pathway for the art above:
This is a gift for that kid and I started working on it 4 months ago and finished it only recently. Excited to give it to him next week.
Children can give us so much just by doing what they feel like!
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It is a great detail you remember our small collaboration, maybe we did not give it the necessary importance at that time, but it is worth remembering and above all knowing that hive goes beyond publications and votes, it is a community that is full of people, people that interact and that create, mind force gathering. It is nice to create bonds of friendship with people who share a similar way of thinking regardless of the language or country, thanks brother!
it is all about the gathering - how right you are.
Thanks, We are consolidating a group of talented artists from different areas, we believe that we can do something important in the future, please do not lose sight of us ✌️
Nicely put my brotha! It was like a wormhole that connected the spirit of community. A hive mind force with the spirit of consciousness. Your comment always cheers me up mate!
I love this for many reasons, firstly I remember you telling me about this kid before and I love seeing what you have created together and the fact that you are so open to the wonderful lessons that children can teach us. They come into this world complete but as they grow so much gets stripped away from them, as it did us. But it does not have to be this way and your friend here is a testament to that.
I am also a huge fan of @shimozurdo and have connected with him on here a lot, but not had the pleasure of conversing with him yet! the same goes with @nowargraffitis, another really gifted artist. They both bring so much to the platform.
And you my friend, I always love to connect with you on here, I hope one day to be able to share space with you. Such a beautiful post, loving the abundance that you are creating xxxxx
I'm thinking the collaboration between you and @shimozurdu is fertile, seriously out-of-the-box and going places.
What did I love about your art piece? The elements of mythology coming through urban grit. The laser like sword of truth piercing through? It's like a superb idea that powers through the most cluttered mind.
I love that there are men in this world who parent other people's kids. Yes, to some degree we are always parenting a part of ourselves, and we are healing and healed in the act of nourishing, nurturing and making space for someone else.
I wish we ALL lived in a time where we are funded to do what we want. But can honestly say that each day I move closer to that place personally. I think we all CAN create that reality for ourselves, if we believe it is possible and have the courage to jump. As a friend remarked to me recently: "you took the red pill so long ago that no one even knew what you were doing." Each and every day it is MY choice to create and shape and bring value to a world which I choose to believe sees and rewards and enfolds me. And so it is.
@artemislives wow! What a comment. Overflowing with energy for weeks during those crazy lunar phases during that time. I believe it would be much easier if single moms lived in communities and could have others do cool stuff with kids like paint, make music, film, edit and make stuff. Its also why #naturalmedicine and it's subscribers are people i relate to so much.
I'm with you on the belief in abundance if we get to use and distribute resources amongst those that make the best of them.
I agree and can feel that the time to give people this power is moving closer. Love the paraphrase with the red pill.
Never forget the first time someone asked me in Koh Samui circa 2005 when I had taken the red pill. I had no idea what he was even talking about! 🤣
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This is so beautifully written. I feel a lot of love and inspiration in you when you’re describing your experience.