Getting Good

Premier Sponsors

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue, we will assume that you agree to our privacy policy which includes details of cookie usage. Hide this notice

Posted by KCFiddles on Saturday, September 8, 2007

Hokusai was a Japanese painter in the 19th Century. He lived and painted into his nineties. He's probably my favorite painter of all time because of his incredible restless inventiveness, perception, and productivity.

When he was in his seventies, he wrote: "From the age of five I have had a mania for sketching the forms of things. From about the age of fifty I produced a number of designs, yet of all I drew prior to the age of seventy there is truly nothing of great note. At the age of seventy-two I finally apprehended something of the true quality of birds, animals, insects, fish and of the vital nature of grasses and trees. Therefore, at eighty I shall have made some progress, at ninety I shall have penetrated even further the deeper meaning of things, at one hundred I shall have become truly marvelous, and at one hundred and ten, each dot, each line shall surely possess a life of its own. I only beg that gentlemen of sufficiently long life take care to note the truth of my words."

I like his attitude.

10 comments on “Getting Good”

OTJunky Says:
Saturday, September 8, 2007 @9:43:12 AM

As is commonly said - "It takes an old man to play the fiddle". ;-)

--OTJ

Swing Says:
Saturday, September 8, 2007 @11:11:37 AM

Michael: great quotation.... we only need to be humble enough to have the courage to ask the right questions of ourselves... no answer comes qucikly or easily... insight to life as we persieve it takes practice.

Play Happy

Swing

PeachyPicker08 Says:
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 @9:24:17 PM

Nothing like getting older to teach you the true value of life-good friends and a fiddle next to your heart.

barefootfdlr Says:
Thursday, October 9, 2008 @6:36:09 AM

Well said, Peach! ;-)

Ozarkian DL Says:
Friday, December 5, 2008 @6:03:41 AM

HO memb's.....always remember....God does not subtract from your alloted time on earth....the time u spend fiddlin.

Genevieve Says:
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @2:05:48 PM

Well that puts things in perspective! :o) And thanks for the shout-out on the New Mules stuff. Hope you're doing well!

KCFiddles Says:
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @8:36:30 PM

Genevieve - Credit where credit is due. Great Job!

JCB Says:
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 @9:24:57 PM

Michael,
thanks for posting the quote. I firmly believe that part of keeping myself "aware" is to keep learning the fiddle, enjoying the folks I meet on the way, and even one one day learning to read music at the ripe old age of 110!