I wish I was one of those people that started things at a good time, a cool time. I sometimes wonder what it’s like to be one of those January 1st-workout people. Or those people who consistently do what they set out to do, like those 30-day challenge people who follow through with the challenge every single day. But nope. I’m the girl that relapses, falls off the bandwagon, and starts her blog on day 4 of her trip. And I’m the girl who doesn’t finish said blog post until two weeks later.
I also wish I had a better introduction to this blog for you. Perhaps, when I’m a little more famous or something, I’ll make a better one. But for now, I can tell you this: I created this because I’m one of those Renaissance people. Not, like, Ren-fest. I think I’d probably like that too, because I increasingly like more and more things. But I’m one of those hearts that needs a whole lot of life to be fulfilled.
It all started with a book. Two books, actually: Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher and The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine. (I highly recommend these books, by the way. I regrettably haven’t finished them, although I’ve started them several times. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I’m starting this blog on Day 4 of my trip, because this is the type of person I currently am. If you’re curious, I do finish books quite often. But not always.)
Sher’s book was divine providence. I was in the El Segundo library, which is not my library. I simply love libraries, so I spend a lot of time in them, even when I can’t check the books out. I also love book covers. They capture me, and if I’m at a library I belong to, I usually check out a lot of books. My library has a 50-book limit. I know this because I have, on a number of occasions, checked out 50 books over the course of several weeks.
Seeing the book, and I was taken by it and by its description. I think I found it at my own library and checked it out, and upon doing so, it was like something in me lifted. I realized I finally belonged somewhere, to some group of people I’d been looking for without knowing I was looking for them.
I’ve always loved too many things. They are “too many” by other people’s standards, but not really mine. And maybe they’re not even other people’s standards. Perhaps more people in the world crave a full, meaning-filled life than are willing to admit it. And perhaps more people wish not to be confined to a few things but to have the freedom to pursue a field of delights.
This is how I knew I was, by Sher’s definition, a scanner: she describes how, when looking through a college catalog, she wanted to take every class. And all her friends thought that was strange. That was me. I LOVE looking through college catalogs and dreaming of all the courses I would take. If I hadn’t been so incredibly talented at music, I’m sure I wouldn’t have known what to pick. (Just kidding – I mean, I love doing music, but I’m no genius. Still, buy my album.) I’m the kind of person that wants to plant a garden with everything in it. Looking through a seed catalog, there’s hardly anything I don’t circle. What does it say about me that I even look through a seed catalog?
Lobenstine’s book gave me the name I was looking for: a Renaissance soul. How lovely and how very accurate.
I have a whole list of unrelated things that I want to do. And when I think about having to choose between them, it’s painful. I don’t want to have to choose between living in a lighthouse for a while and starting a business of some kind, or between picking blueberries grown wild in a field or learning to dance Argentine tango. I want to learn Farsi as much as I want to write a book, and successfully making sourdough bread sounds just as wonderful as making a Christmas album.
Through these books, I’ve realized I don’t have to choose between any of my dreams. And not everything I do has to be lucrative: I can feel just as fulfilled by something I’m doing for fun as I do by something that I’m making a career. The key to successfully doing it all is choosing just a few things at a time to do and then being in tune enough with yourself to know when you’re satisfied with an interest.
I’m still learning about the Renaissance man, and everything that means. And when I say “still learning”, I’m not actively researching. Keeping it real here. I’ve read about it a few times. Not enough. But sometimes when people write about themselves, they exaggerate how passionate and dedicated to something they really are. So, I’m not really still learning about the Renaissance period. I learned a few things a while ago, and haven’t gone back to do any research. I’m not that great. Anyway, during the Renaissance, when being a man of many interests was popular, the main reasoning behind this was the advantage a man would have at problem-solving. When you specialize in something, you see it in great detail, but from one angle. When you have many interests, you see the same problem, but you can flip it this-way and that-way and look at it from all the angles you know how. Maybe you don’t see deep, but you see different.
There were also, however, qualifiers to being renaissance: you couldn’t dabble. You couldn’t be mediocre at everything. You had to have exceptional skills in a few things and good understanding in several fields. And you also had to meet four particular criteria: you had to be intellectual, you had to be artistic, you had to be a socialite, and you had to be physically fit. You couldn’t be smart and kind of fat; you had to look hot too.
So this is my adventure: becoming this renaissance person. I’m going to meet these four criteria, and because I’m a millennial, I’m creating a blog about it. This might be the only resemblance I hold with millennials, though I do take selfies occasionally and would never admit that I have a secret fondness for burlap and mason jars.
Okay, this isn’t at all what I set out to write. Whatever. I was going to tell you about where I am and what I’m doing. Next post.
Also, I recognize I could be writing better. And I will write better. And this website will look better at some point too. But wanting to write better has kept me from writing at all. And I’d rather put something out – anything at all – than sit on something with possibility and squander it. I’ve owned this domain name for a year. And this is the first time I’m really posting anything, except that one time I tried at Christmas. So, no more perfection. Just production. I’m just gonna do it.
The Merry Old Soul 