I’ve been pondering the concept of a New Renaissance.
Da Vicni's Notebook
On the topic, Parade magazine’s resident genius Marilyn Vos Savant once wrote she would: “… found a school for art and music, dedicated to bringing back the classical beauty in sight and sound that – transfigured by contemporary imagination – could make the modern world a glorious place. In short, I would try to start a new Renaissance.”
Imagine, if you can, helping to make your community “a glorious place.”
The truth is that money isn’t the hurdle in achieving the mission of promoting arts within the community. It’s the way we think. We must think this mission is important.
Ahhh, but what is a Renaissance without a Leonardo da Vinci?
Is there a Leonardo lurking nearby? Are you one? Am I?
According to Michael J. Gelb, author of the national bestselling book “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci,” anyone can apply da Vinci’s approach to learning and cultivate their own intelligence. Da Vinci left remarkable notebooks, as well remarkable art and scientific inventions, which are veritable roadmaps.
It probably is arrogant, Gelb writes, to imagine that we can become the genius da Vinci was, however, we can use da Vinci’s resources as a guide to become “more of what we truly are.”
People underestimate their own capabilities, Gelb states, beginning with the concept of intelligence based upon the traditional IQ test. Created by Alfred Binet (1857-1911), the IQ test attempts to measure comprehension, reasoning and judgment. Although Binet was motivated to create the test by a desire to overcome the cultural and class prejudices of late 19th-century France, contemporary research shows it contains two significant flaws, Gelb continues.
The first flaw is that intelligence is fixed at birth and immutable.
According to a statistical review in the scientific journal Nature, genes account for no more than 48 percent of IQ. Prenatal care, environment and education account for 52 percent.
The second flaw is that IQ can be measured by verbal and mathematical reasoning skills.
This, Gelb purports, is a narrow view of intelligence that has been refuted by contemporary research. According to psychologist Howard Gardner (Frames of Mind 1983), there are seven measurable intelligences (and as many as 25 different subintelligences). They, and some geniuses reflective of each category, are:
- Logical-Mathematical – Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie
- Verbal-Linguistic – William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Jorge Luis-Borges
- Spatial-Mechanical – Michelangelo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Buckminster Fuller
- Musical – Mozart, George Gershwin, Ella Fitzgerald
- Bodily-Kinesthetic – Morihei Ueshiba, Muhammad Ali, F.M. Alexander
- Interpersonal-Social – Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth I
- Intrapersonal (Self-knowledge) – Viktor Frankl, Thich Nhat Hanh, Mother Teresa
Exactly where do you fit in? What are your strengths, and which ones would you like to develop? Your brain is better than you think, Gelb writes. Appreciating your brain’s capabilities is important for a practical study of “Da Vincian thinking.”
According to Gelb, your brain:
- Is more flexible and multidimensional than any supercomputer
- Can learn seven facts per second, every second, for the rest of your life
- Will improve with age if you use it properly
- Is not just in your head – neuroscientists claim intelligence is located
- Not only in the brain but in cells distributed throughout the body (now we know why your heart aches!)
- Is unique (as are your fingerprints)
- Is capable of making virtually an unlimited number of synaptic connections
- Is capable of making virtually an unlimited potential patterns of thought.
Imagine all that you’ve learned today, just by reading this essay. Imagine others learning to appreciate the same things you and I do – art, music, poetry, literature, scientific and mechanical inventions, improvements and discoveries.
Who is here to support you in your quest?
We’re here to help you in your quest, and hope – in return – you will help us in our quest. I keep reminding myself that even if it takes baby steps, we are moving forward, but if any of you budding geniuses out there have bright ideas (or deep pockets), how about lending a hand?
Da Vinci's Notebook