Bring Back the Renaissance Man!

‘Get action!’ Theodore Roosevelt says, ‘Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action.’

We often treat life like a set of train tracks from which we must not stray.

‘Don’t ask those questions, don’t say those words, don’t have those thoughts, don’t do those things.’ - This world wants to compress us to become 2D people.

This world will tell us to leave the thinking to the philosophers - and we are no philosopher.

It will tell us to leave the writing to the poets - and we are no poet.

It will tell us to leave the training to the athletes, the praying to the priests, the building to the builders, and the inventing to the inventors. And it will tell us that we are none of those things.

And we believe those lies.

I can’t write.

I can’t run,

I can’t sing.

I can’t think.

We not only believe the lies; we perpetuate them.

And in doing so, we forfeit life. But God created us to write, run, sing, pray, think, and build.

God created us to try and fail and stand back up again.

He created us to wonder and ask.

He created us to be hardy and strong, but this world wants us to feel weak.

And so, we believe we cannot leave the tracks society sets for us, or we will die.

Roosevelt reminds us to get action!

Make things happen. Talk to people about important things. Push your mind to wonder about things as a child does. Challenge your body to perform. Do not dismiss your thoughts; take them seriously. Stand for something. Be somebody. Become a Renaissance Man!

Yes, we should bring back the Renaissance Man. We should be musicians, athletes, painters, philosophers, students, inventors, and builders because we ARE those things, but we drown out the potential, believing we aren’t.

We must become accustomed to testing our abilities in a variety of fields. Some things are too important to allow others to do them in our stead.

Would you ever want someone else to think for you?

Would you allow someone else to find faith for you?

Can another person train for you, sing for you, write for you?

No, these things you must do for yourself. You must WANT to do these things yourself.

And so we must think, search, train, sing, and write for ourselves, even if, at first, we can only crawl and are prone to stumble.

We must do things.

And what if you start painting and cannot paint well? Who will judge you? Certainly not the painters, for they know the journey. No, the ones who judge are those who watch from a distance but refuse to pick up the brush.

And it is not the athlete but the couch potato who judges the man who goes on his first jog.

It is not the philosopher but the fool who judges the woman who begins to ask questions.

Be courageous in a world of fear!

Be genuine in a world of facades!

Be a Renaissance Man in modern times!

'Crash' - my brother enjoys the snow