Menu

In 1486, Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola penned his “Manifesto of the Renaissance”, his Oration on the Dignity of Man . In it, he wrote, “Oh wondrous and unsurpassable felicity of man, to whom it is granted to have what he chooses, to be what he wills to be!” and later, “It will be in your power to descend to the lower, brutish forms of life; you will be able, through your own decision, to rise again to the superior orders whose life is divine.’’

What he was really talking about was the liberation of the spirit of humanity. He meant that among all the creatures of creation, Man alone had the capability to be like any of them. That he could be brutish, evil, and base and succumb to his more savage desires, or, through the depth and power of his own intellect, creativity and will, he could transcend his existence, and become virtually divine.

The most important part of his message, though, is that we have a choice. We choose what we are and what we will be.

Every day, mankind makes a choice to live the life we do. We make a choice to build the things we build, and, perhaps most importantly, we choose what skills of our own to improve.

No other creature on earth has as much choice in how to live their lives than we do. No other creature has at it’s disposal such a vast and incredible array of knowledge and expertise.

I read an estimate the other day, that the New York Times prints, daily, more knowledge than a typical 5th century peasant could have been exposed to in an entire lifetime.

We, as a species are more connected, more educated, and more capable, than any other species that has ever existed on the face of the earth. And through all of that, we have the greatest potential for growth ever to exist.

It is an amazing gift that we are given.

I say it often when talking about technology. “We live in the future”. We have Star Trek level devices sitting in our pockets and on our desks. Need proof? I have in my hand, smaller than a deck of cards, a device that lets me instantly access virtually every aspect of human knowledge, via the Internet. It’s screen is able to be manipulated simply by the touch of my fingers. It can also be used to instantly communicate with friends or even strangers anywhere in the world, by voice, by text, and soon, by video. My desktop computer listens when I talk to it, and can write letters, or even this article simply by me dictating to it. It contains enough music and videos to play for days without repeating the same thing twice.

Even the elements of our lives that enable us to support ourselves are more liberating today than they have ever been before. We, alone, in all of history, have greater potential for creating new and exciting things and distributing them to more people than the world has ever known.

I believe that we owe it to the universe to reinvent ourselves every day. To constantly be striving to improve ourselves. What defines a renaissance man is his ability to master multiple disciplines. Michelangelo , a true renaissance man, was an accomplished (some would say the greatest) painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. Da Vinci , a contemporary to Michelangelo, had an even larger list of professions. While these men may exemplify the renaissance ideal, they are not alone in their accomplishments .

And consider… that all of the renaissance men of the past had less resources available to them in their entire lives than you and I have on a daily basis.

We, you and I, owe it to ourselves, and to mankind, to strive. To press ourselves forward at every opportunity. To seek out and crave knowledge. To explore and expand our own capabilities.

If you’re lucky, you’ve got about 67 years on earth to do it in . That’s 804 months. Or 24,455 days. Or 586,920 hours. Considering you’re old enough to be reading this, you’ve probably burned a good chunk of that already. In the big scheme of things, this is a blink of an eye.

We have a choice of what we do with the opportunity we call life. What will you choose to do with yours today?