The Mona Lisa and How It Relates to My Current Life Situation [final thoughts from the last 30 days]
The great experimental #manifestchallenge of @arbitrarykitten with an attempt to learn visualizing one's life to achieve the things we want, is coming to an end. So here's a quick recap of what I did during the challenge of attempting to figure out some goals of mine:
During the challenge I realized I want to travel the world; I'll start small and make my first full length bike trip when I get the chance.
- Manifestchallenge, Day 2 - What do I want
- Manifestchallenge, Day 3 - Taking over the world, one trip at a time
I'm also going to read the Kalevala the mythological folk lore collection of my nation, and finish my "Kalevala series" of it.
The four parts of my Kalevala series during the 30 days:
- #10 The forging of the Sampo
- #11 Lemminkäinen's quest for a wife
- #12 Lemminkäinen goes to war
- #13 The hunt for the Moose of Hiisi
Some day I will run a marathon, so I made a habbit of running once every week during the challenge while visiting different places:
- Manifestchallenge, Day 5 - Running to my goals
- ManifestChallenge, Day 7 - Running in Sherwood to the top of the Swing Rock
- ManifestChallenge, Day 14 - A melancholic autumn run
- The prison of my home city - [Running update] #ManifestChallenge, Day 21
- Visiting the death cabin of Aleksis Kivi - The most important character in Finnish literature [running update]
But my plans for my future are still somewhat unclear (I already ranted about it), so for the finish I will do some heavy thinking:
A Career(?)
Yup, here we go again to the endless pondering on what kind of a profession I should pick up but first I'll talk just a little about
da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci is pretty much the arch type of an universal genius; he was a scientist, mathematician, architect, author, anatomist, optician, botanist, musician, and possibly most knowingly a painter.
I got caught in a YouTube video of a discussion between Neil deGrasse and Walter Isaacson on "What makes a genius" in which they discuss the relation between art and science and get into da Vinci and to the most symbolic work of his: Mona Lisa.
The painting is famous for it's eyes that seem to follow you where ever you move related to it but there's more as Isaacsion explains:
"-- but he [da Vinci] also dissected the human eye and figured out that in the very center of the retina the cones see black and white - which is true he got it right - but the edges of the eyes see colors and shadows."
With this knowledge on the human eye and its optics, da Vinci - among many other tricks - was able to make the painting so that when looking directly at the mouth the corners of it turn down and she doesn't seem so smiley anymore. But letting your eyes wonder to his forehead, his smile suddenly wakes again.
Try it yourself: Look directly at the mouth for a while and then let your eyes wonder.
Source
She smiles, and then she doesn't.
"-- had he not dissected the eye, had he not done the lips, had he not studied geology and understand how rivers flow into roads flowing to our veins and that they have the exact same curves as our veins, you would not have the Mona Lisa."
-Walter Isaacson.
Here's the whole discussion:
They discussion about Mona Lisa starts about 27:30
Without da Vinci's interest in such a variety of arts and sciences he would've not been able to create the characteristics of the Mona Lisa that it is so famous for.
Now, the reason I brought this up is because I'm also an all around hustler rather than one to master one thing completely. Though I'm no da Vinci; he was one of a kind and more like an expert in multiple areas. But I think modern world is guiding us to a very specific profession to achieve the maximum efficiency and profitability out of him/her for the benefit of government. We praise da Vinci for his genius abilities but today we don't encourage people to be like him: observant and curious about everything in our environment, at least that's how I feel like. Should there be some value in it even today? After all, it did make the Mona Lisa possible.
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What I've realized is if I'm ever having a career or a job, that would have to be something with a big variety in tasks and/or something creative; a full time desk job is a no go for me. I guess this is because I like to look things from many angles and combining things drawing connections with them.
Maybe there are some choices where one could use this broad sense of interests and knowledge and I just haven't looked enough. Or maybe there just isn't a clear "path" for such people and I just have to create my own path by myself. I guess that's where I'm kind of heading and I feel like that could be a necessity if I want to live a satisfying life. Nobody can know better what I want than I, right?
For the last time thank you @arbitrarykitten for this challenge and helping me potentially kick start the clearing for my own path!
The discovery of thy self shall continue at another time, perhaps, so until then...
"Spiral out, keep going"
-Tool, Lateralus.
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Create your own path. That fits you quite well.
You must share updates every so often! I am hooked on watching your path unfold :)
PS. I love Tool
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I'll update when something happens or pops on my mind.
You have a good taste ;)