Leonardo

I went to the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at the museum downtown the end of December.

Leonardo was one of the pivotal people in history.  He gave us art, design, many inventions that came out of his brain.  Knowledge way beyond his years. Things that may have take decades, even centuries to discover had he not done them.

In the history of the world, there are only a few people who could be considered great.  He was one.  Maybe a few Biblical guys.  Sir Isaac Newton.  Galileo.  Amundsen. Hillary. Columbus. Yeah, there were a bunch of important guys who brought us discoveries, changed life as we know it, industrialized countries, advanced science.

But what of the rest of us?  Billions of people, yet only hundreds of REALLY memorable ones.  The rest of us get to live out our days in relative anonymity, going from one place to the next, being the "cogs in the wheel," so to speak.  It bothers me a little bit.

Face it.  I'm never going to make an Olympic team.  Probably not be mentioned in a history book anywhere.  The world's population keeps getting bigger, and that means every day I become a smaller and smaller proportion of it.

So what to do? I can't have a big effect on the world.  I can, however, have an effect on my little corner of it. I can help people become healthier through training and exercise.  I can help educate my grandkids. I can inspire other people through my writing.  LOTS and LOTS of good things to accomplish.

It's a rough draft, but what I'm trying to get at here is that we ALL can do positive things to make the world better.  Helping someone who needs it.  Loving someone who needs it.  Counting our own blessings and sharing them with others.

I was constantly in awe, as I read of his life, played with machines he had designed, studied his drawings.  His life and his works inspire us centuries after his death.  If we all just live as if the things we're doing will be having effects on others long after we're gone, I'm pretty sure we'll make the world a better place.