The first of the Principles of da Vinci is that of Curiosita, described as an insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
(In a typical passage from the notebooks Da Vinci...) adds, "I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains along with imprints of coral and plants and seaweed usually found in the sea. Why the thunder lasts a longer time than that which causes it, and why immediately on its creation the lightning becomes visible to the eye while thunder requires time to travel. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone, and why a bird sustains itself in the air. These questions and other strange phenomena engage my thought throughout my life."
My parents were two of the most curious people I've ever known. One of the strongest memories I have of my Dad was him on a Sunday afternoon, laying on the couch with a volume of the encyclopedia. It didn't matter which volume of our (even then) ancient set he had. He would read it from start to end like a novel. There was always something in it that interested him. Unlike me, he was a great extrovert and he used his magpie storage of information to talk intelligently to anyone on almost any subject. If he didn't know about their subject before he talked to them, by the end of the conversation, he had a good working knowledge of whatever they were interested in.
I hardly remember a time when I was growing up that my mother was not taking some sort of class or another. She had a hunger for education and continually stretched herself. When I was in Jr. High, she decided to go back to college to get her degree. She was continually studying, learning all sorts of new things and I became her guinea pig for her exercises in classes ranging from audiology to psychology. For me, it was fascinating because I was learning along with her. It was great!
By the time I was in High School and had moved back to our hometown in Central Texas, Sunday afternoon for the two of us was made up of her studying while I baked bread. She would take a break for a slice of fresh bread while we watched Julia Child and then we would lay around reading through the huge dictionary she used for her studies. We would find some obscure or funny sounding word and challenge each other to use the word in conversation during the week. It's amazing when you learn a new word at how many times it will show up.
I don't think I really ever had a chance to be anything other than curious but it was also something that I learned. You can learn it to. Allow yourself time to begin asking questions like those in Leonardo's notebook. Start a notebook and spend time each day to just think and ponder. I understand how hard that can be in our busy lives but I'm going to begin carving time out myself and I challenge you to do the same. Can we do it for a week, to begin with? Let's do it together.
(from "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci" by Michael J. Gelb)
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