To Live Beyond the Pale

I am sitting here on a Sunday night with what has become somewhat of a Shanghai habit for me. A tall can of Asahi beer and a big, and I mean big, cup of steaming noodles for dinner from the local convenience store. My feet were very tired after yesterdays marathon walk, so I mostly stayed in and relaxed today. I wish I had more exotic tales to tell, of nights out bouncing from nightclub to bar to dance hall with an occasional jump back in time to an opium den. But that's just not me, and I knew that was not what this trip was about.

The goal was two fold, to find out if I could take an adventure on my own, and to see a little piece of China, and a big piece of Shanghai. I am not going to even pretend to know much about this city, that would be folly. I have only seen a fraction of it, and without speaking the language, or really knowing anyone here, there is only so much I can learn. But I have succeeded in pushing my own boundaries, and however small increasing my knowledge; and I am not sitting in a cubicle.

I brought two books with me to China. "China Shakes the World" by James Kynge, and Henry Miller's "Air Conditioned Nightmare". Both are excellent books. There is a passage in Miller's book that I just love.

"To live beyond the pale, to work for the pleasure of working, to grow old gracefully while retaining one's facilities, one's enthusiasms, one's self respect, one has to establish other values than those endorsed by the mob. It takes an artist to make this breach in the wall. An artist is primarily one who has faith in himself. He does not respond to the normal stimuli: he is neither a drudge or a parasite. He lives to express himself and in doing so enriches the world."

These are the words that inspire me as I move forward in life. Maybe my art is not going to be expressed in paint or words or clay or steel, or even egg shells. Maybe my art will be in living a life that makes me happy and fulfilled and always learning and exploring and always heading towards passion. Maybe my art will be.... me.