GRAND Magazine - Summer 2024 - 10

from our readers
In the process, I soon discovered
a shortcut to modeling
myself after da Vinci. All I had to
do in order to adopt his mindset
- and its signature attributes
- was to follow the example Lucia
set. Here are the key traits that
Leonardo so vividly represents and
that Lucia has now taught me how
to appreciate:
Relentless curiosity. Leonardo
craved knowledge and understanding
of the universe from the
microscopic to the cosmic, not only
the what but also the how and the
why. Lucia was literally born with her
eyes open, among the one in three
babies to do so, ready to catch sight of anything in
view. As an infant, she would automatically turn her
head toward every sound she heard in an attempt to
identify its source. If you say any word unfamiliar to
her, she'll immediately ask its meaning.
Laser-like observation. Leonardo sought to educate
himself largely through his own eyes and ears. A diehard
auto-didact, he placed more of a premium on
firsthand impressions gleaned through his own senses
than from lessons conveyed in a book or lecture. So,
too, with Lucia, on whom, I swear, nothing is lost. She
notices everything - scrapes on my ankles, skywriting
airplanes overhead, a chair moved overnight from one
corner of a room to another. She's the ultimate empiricist,
basing all her findings on the facts she ferrets out
independently.
An appetite for experimentation. Leonardo, though
10 GRAND SummER 2024
by no definition a dilettante, dabbled
in almost every discipline. The
Renaissance immortal was so determined
to explore the workings of
the human body - the better to
render its bones and muscles realistically
in his paintings - that he
dissected corpses. Lucia, as a typical
toddler, likewise puts stock in rigorous
trial and error. She often conducts
tests - of, say, her balance as
she tiptoes along a long horizontal
pipe in our backyard that she has
designated as a makeshift tightrope.
She devotes hours to piecing
together puzzles and putting
together Legos to construct a bridge or skyscraper.
She's come to see life as an ongoing experiment. She
already recognizes that the more we try, the more we
will fail, but also that if we keep letting ourselves fail,
the more we're likely eventually to succeed.
"
Lucia has shown me that if I want to
be more like Leonardo da Vinci, all I
have to do is be more like her...
The upshot is that Lucia reflexively does what most
adults have long since forgotten to do, much less
how. She daydreams, letting her mind take her wherever
it cares to go. She experiences awe, even if just
from blowing bubbles floating into the summer sky.
Her favorite word, tellingly, is " Wow! " Her days are a
never-ending streak of " aha " moments.
In turn, I now go at my life differently. I've grown
progressively more curious, observant and experimental.
I pelt everyone I know, friend and colleague
alike, with question after question about anything and
everything. I pay infinitely closer attention to conversation
with my family at dinner and to clients on
Zoom calls. I duck down rabbit holes to explore promising
new projects, however farfetched, despite feeling
intimidated by the probability of hitting a dead end
(because even dead ends - hatched and pursued in a
fit of excitement, only to be aborted and abandoned -
can still take you somewhere worth going).
How fitting this all now seems to me. I wrote a
term paper about Leonardo in college for my Western
Civilization course, dubbing him " the genius of all
geniuses. " My fascination with him has endured as
I've read biographies of him, watched documentaries
about him, and beheld his artistry in museums. I have
his self-portrait of himself as a bearded old man on
my desk today.
Lucia has shown me that if I want to be more like
Leonardo da Vinci, all I have to do is be more like her,
too. It's ironic, really. All these years, I've struggled to
evolve into an adult. But in trying to mature, I outgrew
some of the very features essential to
leading a rewarding life. As it turns out,
I'll probably be better off - and thrive
more - if I remain forever a child.
Bob Brody is a consultant and essayist.
He is the author of the memoir Playing
Catch with Strangers: A Family Guy
(Reluctantly) Comes of Age.
"

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GRAND Magazine - Summer 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - Summer 2024