The Magic Paintbrush

A few days ago I was reminded of a book I read as a child about a Chinese man who painted pictures that came to life.  I remembered these amazing pictures of birds and dragons, and the key to the story, that the paintings only came to life when the last brush stroke left the paper.  The story touched me at the time, it sounded enigmatic to me while I remembered it. 

So my Google search took me first to Wu Daozi an artist of the Chinese Tang Dynasty:

"Wu traveled widely and created murals in Buddhist and Daoist temples. Wu also drew mountains, rivers, flowers, birds. No authentic works are extant, though some exist in later copies or stone carvings."

His name came up in a search because he was such an accomplished painter, there are legends of his paintings coming to life. One such story is about a dragon or group of dragons that were so lifelike they looked like they moved around on the paper. Wu Daozi was said to have painted in the style of Chang Seng Yu, whose dragons also came to life. Both Chang Seng Yu and Wu Daozi along with Ku K'ai-chih and Lu T'an-wei are said to be the four great masters of Chinese Painting.



Wu Daozi's painting of a dragon comes to life.

Next to come up in my search was, Han Gan, again of the Tang Dynasty.  His legend surrounds that of his horse paintings coming to life, such was their beauty and spirit. 

Night-Shining White

 These legends were alluding to the story I had read, they were close, but none of them were children's stories! Then I came across the Chinese story of Ma Liang and the Magic Paint Bush, I felt like I was getting closer, but this story didn't mention the paintings coming to life after the last brush stroke, and I was sure this was part of the story.

Finally I struck on Magic Paint Brush gold with an image search, and here were the images I remembered from my childhood, but what was the book?  Ha ha ... chuckle I did!

The Magic Paintbrush

Sugar-less and fancy (cake) free

After watching Fed Up, an American documentary about the sugar and the food industry (it's a good watch and on Netflix) I have been inspired to take on a challenge of going sugar-less for 7 days.  Sugar-less means no sugar or sugar substitutes.  I wasn't sure what sort of task I had set myself...until I went shopping.  And here's the thing, there's sugar in nearly damn everything.

I reckon that more than three quarters of the food in a Tesco supermarket has sugar added to it, or is a diet substitute with added sweetener.  And what's left is mostly fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy and meat (although I did find some peanut butter and soya sauce.)  It was as the documentary had pointed out, sugar has become an easy, cheap way to flavour food, food which you never would have thought should come within 10 metres of sugar, and those fat bastards in the food industry are making a lot of money, and adding to a lot of people's ill health.

I've been sugar-less for 5 days now, it's not been easy.  Today I went into a garage and was literally surrounded by sugar filled products, and at school I have been ignoring the biscuits and deserts on offer daily.  And I feel great.  I'm not sure how to quantify it, my body just feels cleaner at the moment.  Walking through the aisles of chocolate and sweets I didn't feel like I wanted anything.  I'm hoping that any cravings will slowly subside, disappear and I'll be sugar-less for a lot longer than 7 days ...

Spinster

A random walk through the idea of trying to come to terms with being eternally single.  This single life is largely derided. How can I live my life without constantly craving the love of another?  Do people live successful single lives and embrace it?

Start - Google search:  Living as a single person

Six ways I'm embracing being single.



Up pops 10 tips on living life as a single person ... really? I don't need tips thanks.

Spinster is the new black says that we're in the middle of a new "Single Moment", which is all about how ways we can live outside the ideal of 2.4 children families.

A guide to embracing life as a single is a piece written in the NY Times in 2007. We were battling the stigmatism that comes with being single.  Unfortunately the website it was advertising no longer champions the lives of the single, it's been taken over by a marketing company.

Strangely both of these articles written eight years apart are championed by Bella DePaulo who has written loads of books on the subject.

Google search: Why do people think they need to be in a relationship

Science says you don't need to be in a relationship to be happy  ... We live in a culture that's very couple orientated, where singles feel deviant ... Bella DePaulo again!

Why do you want to be in a relationship?  Finally away from Dr. DePaulo some very good points about the different reasons people want to be in a relationship.  There's getters and givers.  Getters, people who want to be in a relationship to get something back, largely have an unsuccessful time.  Givers see the relationship world differently and want to share the experience of love, rather than take it.

Google: Why does society expect people to be in relationships?

What people want from relationships "For millennia relationships were dictated by survival".  This points to the fact that relationships are linked to procreation, that love is possibly a by-product of the need for humans to survive.  Two is better than one.

Some people believe that single people could literally cause the breakdown of a well-structured society i.e. people in relationships are needed to maintain an ordered society.  Religious people look scornfully on single people as they are not fulfilling their role as a human being.  And here's where the stigma starts to unravel itself.  I didn't realise I was such an odorous member of society!  Dear old Penelope puts it so well, "People in a relationship are more healthy and happy and live longer than single people... Single people are considered pathetic and not able to pair up. Those who deliberately choose to stay single because they prefer staying single instead of having an a...hole as a partner do not stay single of choice. Staying single because the option of having a partner is not appealing, is not of choice but of inability."  Nice!


Searching for images has taken me a while.  A google search for, 'single' brings up loads of negative and some positive single memes. 




Be happy being single, and then you can find, 'The One'.

Now I'm just finding it frustrating.  The consensus is that you can embrace single life, but at some point there will be someone special waiting there for you.  Which is not what I'm looking for.  I want to truly accept being single.  Not just live the single life for a bit in the hope that some amazing person will totter around the corner!  Aaaarrrgh!



 Google Images: Spinster

Finally I am on the way to finding a positive spin - The New Spinster : We are starting to reclaim our lives.

 And my final destination for the moment Sad spinsters and lonely cat ladies.  This says it all.  Next stop ... famous spinsters.