SOME THINGS HAVE TO BE SEEN

I stood in a village, high among the clouds, and wondered what life was really about...

INSPIRATION PART II

I have always said that travel changes people. In recent years, though, I have been doing it so much that the strength of these effects may have been lost on me. Still, I found, last week, as I stood in this traditional mountain village, that the effects are still there, still profound, and can strike at anytime. Was I standing in a fantasy movie? Could any of this be real? The air and water were clean and pure. The people were traditional and simple. It was like I stepped into a long lost age where all the things that seemed so important in modern life simply didn't matter anymore. How do you cope with the questions that arise when you're faced with a new picture of what life could be? How do you deal with the feelings that well up when you realize there is so much more to life, people and the world? Well, this is all a part of what we call inspiration. If you're an artist like me, you draw it!

If there is one thing these experiences have given me, it is focus. I like to call it creative focus. I can see so clearly how to apply my skills for best results rather than dissipate them on too many endeavors. I can see more clearly what I must create, and that I must create to find any sort of fulfillment. Although there may be pockets of fulfillment in all corners of life, things must eventually narrow down to that one main goal, that one thing that you know is your task. When you have discovered it, this is the thing you must devote yourself to fully.

My time in this fantasy world, and in this unreal life, will soon come to an end. I will be back in Shanghai among the maze of great skyscrapers, video screens and gadgets in every hand. I will not, however, be the same person that walked those streets before. I am more focused, and with new goals in mind I will move forward, ever so determined to create more of what I should create, rather than being pushed and pulled by perceived market forces and outmoded ideas. I have talked to the people that have done it, and are doing it. They do exist. Perhaps now my life among the rigors of big city and back in the office will be the one that seems not real.

Thanks to all that I have learned, the motions made over the next few months will be big. You already know about Paragon, and some will follow its production, but there is so much more on the horizon. It will not, however, be rushed. Nothing will be. I have already made that mistake and will not repeat it. This blog may not be big enough to describe everything going through my mind these days. Projects big enough to do that are on the way.