To Think Like Leonardo

When Edith stopped by here a couple of weeks ago on her way to Wisconsin, she mentioned that she was listening to a book on tape while she drove...."How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci." Intrigued by the title, I visited my almost-best-friend, Amazon.com and purchased a used copy. It arrived last week and what fun I'm having with it. I've always been a Leonardo fan; seeing the Mona Lisa in person was a thrill. Even those of us who snoozed through art class recognized the Vitruvian Man and The Madonna of the Rocks in the movie, "The da Vinci Code." Most people also know that Leonardo was a genius whose notebooks were full of designs for a flying machine, a helicopter, an armored tank, a machine gun and a submarine. And almost every kid around can tell you that Leonardo wrote in secret code...backwards writing that you can only read by looking at it in a mirror! I'm certainly no genius, but I believe this book can encourage me to think more creatively. It's divided into 7 parts each corresponding with a quality found in Leo's life: curiosty, willingness to test knowlege, continual refinement of the senses, willingness to embrace uncertainty, balance of art and science, cultivation of grace, and recognition of inter-connectedness. Each chapter begins with a self-assessment exercise. I'm beginning with curiosity (Curiostia, in Italian). Here are a couple of the questions that I can answer a loud "YES!" to...
I love learning...yes
I am involved in learning a language other than my native one..yes
When I hear or read a new word or phrase, I look it up and makea note of it..yes
I am a voracious reader....yes!
My first exercise to stimulate my mind after doing the self assessment quiz was to write 100 questions at one sitting, writing quickly and without a lot of laborious thought. Then I organized those questions into broad themes and selected my top 10 questions. My instructions were then to put the questions away for awhile. I'll go back to them later, I guess. I struggled to come up with 100 questions! This thinking like Leo might be a real challenge for me!

In case you want to know which painting of Leo's is my favorite, click here.