Nascimento de Souza sketching ‘Once More, With Wonder’
Atika Modassir (Oxon)
Okinawa, Japan is a flag bearer amongst "BlueZones", areas where centenarians vibrantly live past 100. It turns outthat in the Okinawan dialect, there’s no word for retirement and their word forwork is hataraku – meaning ‘to serve community’. Rejecting retirement as an imposedconstruct, Okinawans believe that service need not finish with a job, rather itcan take new expressions of contribution. By adopting a progressive lifestyleof enduring purpose, they steer clear of decline that creeps up with age and theloss of communal connection. Pondering if its ever too late for purposeful passiontake new root, led me to Nascimento de Souza (Nasci) from Siolim, Goa. Havingled a multinational as MD, chaired companies, headed the Employers’ Federationof South India; at 98 years old; Nasci rediscovered his childhood delight ofsketching; while continuing to pursue gardening, composting and cooking! A couple of years ago, when a mishaprendered his carpentry workshop– where he crafted giftsand toys for family– inaccessible, he reclaimed his lost passionfor drawing, inspired by photographs from his birding groups. He has since devotedlysketched 108 birds in scrupulous detail, 42 of which featured at ‘Once More,With Wonder’, an exhibition of his sketches at the Museum of Christian Art.
Purpose that makes life worth living
Joining Nasci in a conversation with ornithologistDr Minal Shirodkar put forth for me, two distinct and striking perspectives on dedicatedpurpose. Shirodkar’s academic work on birds and Nasci’s vivid sketches; both demonstratehow expression of service can evolve with time. The Japanese call this Ikigai.This spirit of benefaction finds expression in Galatians 6:9 – "Let us notbecome weary in doing good”.
Love of creation
Biophilia – a "passionate loveof life and of all that is alive" was a term coined in 1973 by Fromm, inhis book ‘The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness’. Sounded a fittingdescription of Nasci, he recollects fishing trips with his father as a child,enthralled by a kingfisher’s dive from stillness to swiftness, in a splitsecond. As an adult, Nasci invested weeks into winning the trust of a wildbluejay, till it finally perched on his palm. Showing up every single day tobond with a little creature, takes a genial soul with a great love of creation.It is this spirit of care echoes in Psalm 145:16 — “You open your hand andsatisfy the desires of every living thing.”
The art of attention and flow
Both sketching and ornithology, exemplify a mastery ofactive mindfulness–pausing and paying attention, beyond our preoccupations.Immersive hobbies help us achieve a state of flow, quietly bringing out thebest in us on a daily basis, by restoring our attention and helping us to fostera spiritual connection. A reflection on this offered in Psalm 46:10– "Bestill, and know that I am.”
Inspiration
While admiring Nasci’s sketch of a kingfisher that isnative to Goa, Shirodkar shared how Nakatsu– an avid Japanesebird watcher and engineer analysed the geometry of its beak to unlock theformula to recreating the design of Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train, making itaerodynamic enough to avoid a sonic boom. He leveraged biomimicry– the study of nature for resolving complicated engineering problems.Respect for nature brings lessons of perspective and moments of discovery if wecare to look. Job 12:7– “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or thebirds in the sky, and they will tell you” echoes this insight.
Situational awareness
Developing a keen sense of observation heightens ourawareness, providing us with understanding of our environment, and helping usthrive. Admiring a sketch of the Great Hornbill, which is one of the fourvarieties found in Goa, Shirodkar explained how its presence signifies the prevalenceof ancient trees bearing natural large hollows; in which they nest– a reminder of how old trees are anchors of ourecosystem that must be protected. In 1 Kings 19:11–12, awareness is the bridgebetween Elijah's internal exhaustion and presence.
Hobbies infuse wonder for life
When I asked them how we can build passion for natureand sustain hobbies on a daily basis despite busy schedules and digitaldistractions, they recommended collecting and spending time in the greatoutdoors, seeking wildflowers, leaves and pebbles, stargazing, gardening andplanting flowering plants to encourage birds and animals. It reminded me of theforgotten loves I harboured as a child- pressing dried flowers, making whistleswith blades of grass, weaving palm leaves to fashion my self-styled apron,hunting for sea glass and playing I-spy on the beach. Psalm 104:24– “How manyare your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of yourcreatures” celebrates this very wonderment.
While aging changes the forms of how wecontribute in life, it need not limit our passion and capacity to do so. Contributing to making the world a betterplace is a life-long privilege that need not fade, rather it becomes even more sacrosanctwith each passing day.
