Dilettante

What is the difference between da Vinci and your typical high achieving student with three majors who acts in the school play and serves as student body president?  One blog I recently read argued that da Vinci's science influenced his art, and vice versa, and so he is a Renaissance man, while the student had no purpose for their scattered interests, which makes them a dilettante.

I had to look up the word dilettante.  I didn't think it was as negative a word as the writer seemed to think it was.  ("Nobody wants to be a dilettante", they wrote.  They don't?)

So let's shine the light of my own personal experience on these ideas.  I have a lot of scattered interests.  Unlike da Vinci, my art doesn't influence my science.  So I am not a Renaissance man.  (Ignore here for a second the obvious problem with gender, and pretend I could be.)

I wouldn't say that my scattered interests therefore serve no purpose.  Instead, I would say that they balance each other.  For example, I like doing research at work, but my brain can only take so much cold hard logic.  Then I need to switch.  I can switch to do people things, like teaching.  Or, over a weekend, I can work with emotions, reading fiction or personal writing.  These are totally different compartments in my brain.  Each little bit of brain likes to be exercised, however, even if it doesn't speak to the other bits.  Balance.  Physical.  Mental.  Emotional.  Social.  Spiritual.

So what about the student with three majors acting in the school play and serving as student body president?  Well, there's something to be said about blood pressure.  But assuming the blood pressure is not a problem, what's wrong with people having different interests?  And putting in the effort to excel at different things?  Balance.  That student sounds pretty balanced to me, still ignoring the blood pressure thing.

Will my child be negatively affected if I sign him up for sports and art and cooking?  On top of his regular school day?  I don't think so.  He may learn to use his brain in more ways, and learn to enjoy more of the wonderful things that make us human.  Why not let our children see much more of the good in the world, from many different lenses?  Physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual.

Balance.

As for me, the pendulum is swinging backwards.  Those of you who volunteered to read my novel draft, thank you.  I will probably take you up on that.  However, you'll have to give me a while.  I've decided I need some time away from it, thanks in part to a billion deadlines hitting me on the head at the same time.  And especially the need to do something else for a while.