Bridge the Globe

Where Have All the da Vincis gone?

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently visited an exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.  Part of the exhibit included original manuscripts of books that Leonardo counted as part of his library.  It gave me pause, because in his time merely having access to that kind of knowledge required sums of money far beyond the reach of an average person.   

Today, nearly everyone in the developed world has access to this same knowledge and more through the internet, yet we haven't seen the likes of a da Vinci for a very long time. 

Yet despite far greater difficulties in obtaining access to works of literature and science, the Rennasiance produced Leonardo, Michelangelo, and other Ninja Turtles.  In Ancient Greece the likes of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Aristophanes, Pericles, and so many others appeared at nearly the same moment in time. 

What forces brought these great lights to bear on humanity at such small and focused points in history?  Since the time of our founders here in America we've been lucky to have one or two great men during even our most challenging times. 

What causes this?  What's the difference?  Just through sheer numbers we should have millions of Leonardos among us!  What can we do today to encourage more of these great souls, and what are we doing wrong that they don't naturally appear?

One could argue that Tesla or Edison meets the standard, but their genius manifested itself solely in engineering (and so on for all sorts of disciplines).  Da Vinci excelled at nearly all the arts. Even so, it seems as though we have entered into an era far short in the sorts of people I feel we need to truly take advantage of the interconnectedness of our modern world.

I might accept the argument that today it takes far longer to learn all of man's acquired knowledge on any one topic to excel at more than a few, but I suspect there's a deeper and better answer - one that I hope people brighter than myself will noodle upon and fix.

Something must be done, for the potential of our modern world is far too great for us to accept anything less.

Swift Boat Irish for Truth

Today I woke up early so I could attend services at St. Patrick’s Cathedral here in Dublin. (By early I mean 10am, but it’s far, far earlier in whatever time zone my body believes itself to reside in at the moment.)  Fantastic service, and I’m happy to report that, as for my ability to understand the sermon, the sound system presented more of a hindrance than the accents did.

As the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland, the service was quite similar to the ones I've attended at the National Cathedral in DC, as they're both Episcopal churches.  Incidentally, Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, is buried just inside the south entrance, and Handel premiered his Messiah at the church in April of 1742.

Most interestingly to me, though, after the service I went back to the small gathering of church regulars and spoke with the man I shall call the "reader."  (Not sure what his official title is, but it's the guy who read out bible passages during the service.)  He's from Massachusetts originally, and his brother lives in Washington, DC.

And his brother is the Republican media consultant responsible for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads.  OMG - pun intended.

Apparently, Kerry's commanding officer in Vietnam, who had supported Kerry during his first run for Senate, became increasingly pissed off about the lengths to which the Senator exaggerated his accomplishments in that conflict.  After speaking with some of his fellow officers, the guy finally decided he'd had enough and approached my new Irish Massachusetts friend's brother about making some attack ads.

While I wouldn't necessarily credit the Swift Boat ads with destroying Kerry's presidential bid (I think his campaign's complete failure to respond to the ads, along with so many other complete failures, is responsible for that), it's pretty damn darn amazing that I traveled to the other side of the world and struck up a conversation with the brother of the guy who made those ads.

After my conversation I, of course, took lots of pretty pictures I'll put online here very soon, and then headed back to meet up with my dad and bro.  After a wonderfully Irish lunch of Beef and Guinness Stew with a beer and Yorkshire pudding, we found our way to the Chester Beatty Library (named European Museum of the Year in 2002) where they had an exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester.

The Codex Leicester, purchased at some point by the Duke of Leicester and most recently by Bill Gates, the notebook focuses primary around the subject of water.  As usual, Leonardo has some fantastic insights, but...

He believed there was water on the moon.  ON THE MOON!  I mean, most of his ideas were pretty far out there for the time, but for some reason we forgive most of his errors because he was spot-on for so much else.  This moon thing, however, makes me wonder if the "even a broken clock is right twice a day" theory applies to Leonardo.  Of course, then I'll just remember how silly I am for thinking that because those flying machines of his worked out so well.  Wait...

(More on da Vinci later...)

Right now we’re resting for a bit before heading out to A Taste of Dublin.  I’m just finishing up a bag of “Snack A Jacks” Salt & Vinegar rice cake snacks and washing it down with a blueberry, byrtille, and heidelbeere “mySmoothie” drink. Mmm.

Dublin is pretty damn darn cool.