Replying to LO24099 --
Dear Andrew,
I feel lost, you wrote:
> Leonardo reflected enigmatically that -- 'All the while I thought I was
> learning how to live, when I was in fact learning how to die.'
Leonardo seems to me a practical man, so to hear. The only enigma seems to
be in the thought. Death comes free with any life, and nobody i know
received an instruction, so we'll have to think of one. Or, in a different
perspective, your personal life stops, but, as you've changed the world,
you go on living for ever. Doesn't every moment exist in time, nothing is
"undone", can be undone, every decision is final. It only spreads thinner
and thinner.
Is this a "memento mori" or a "carpe diem" or what? Or is there a
different reasoning behind this statement, a lack of "joi d'vivre"?
I can think of three more enigma's. So the real enigma is in the thought.
What made me think?
> "(And) recently above Milan toward Lake Maggiorre I saw a cloud in the
> shape of an immense mountain covered with fiery stones, for it was tinged
> with red by the sun on the horizon. This huge cloud stood motionless; such
> was its immensity that its summit contained the sun's light for one hour
> and a half into night. And within two hours of night it produced so great
> a wind, it was a stupefying, unheard of thing; the air contained in it,
> compressed by condensation, erupted and escaped through the cloud's
> weakest part, rushing tumultuously, as happens when a sponge is pressed
> under water by a hand and the water it had absorbed escapes between the
> fingers of the hand and through the surrounding water."
>
> Leonardo da Vinci. Codex Leicester 28 Recto.
Years and years ago, when traveling back from Italy to The Netherlands,
passing Milan towards Lugano, we saw such a cloud. We do not have these
awesome build ups of tension in The Netherlands. And we had seen rain but
not these torrents of water. Impressive.
> "Come la chiarezza dell'aria nasce dall'acaqua che in quella s'e resoluta
> e fattasi in insensibili graniculi, li quali, preso il lume del sole
> dall'apposita parte, rendan la chiarezza che in essa aria si dimostra; e
> l'azzurro che quella apparisce nasce dalle tenbre che dopo esa aria si
> nascondano."
I'll have to brush up my Italian.
Kind regards,
Jan Lelie
-- Drs J.C. Lelie CPIM (Jan) LOGISENS - Sparring Partner in Logistical Development Mind@Work - est. 1998 - Group Decision Process Support Tel.: (+ 31) (0)70 3243475 or car: (+ 31)(0)65 4685114 http://www.mindatwork.nl and/or taoSystems: + 31 (0)30 6377973 - Mindatwork@taoNet.nlLearning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
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