Oh, to spread your wings and fly.

IF….. one has wings, that is.  And if you don’t possess them on your own right… what is the next best thing?  Well… to make some of your very own.

Who could do it better than the Wright Brothers?  Apparently, no one.  They were the first to actually make it work.  But plenty of others tried before them.  Take for instance, Leonardo Da Vinci.  WAY before Orville and Wilbur.

Da Vinci is one of my favorite people in all of history.   This guy was some kind of a human wonder boy.  Honest to goodness…. I bet he wore a red cape to go with his little beret.

Leonardo da Vinci was Italian.  Concisely, he was born in Vinci, Florence, Italy.  His profession, is mainly referred to as “Painter.  Scientist.  Visionary.”
I love that last one.  “Hey.  Polly.   What do you do for a living?”  “Well…. I am a Visionary.”   If only.

Anyway, back to Leo.  He was many things in fact.  A painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer.

Many consider him to be the greatest painter of all time.  He was a “LOT” of great things… of all time.

This guy was teeming with ideas.  A gazillion of them.  He conceptualized flying machines, a tank, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, the double hull, and a theory of plate tectonics….. just to name a few.

And, on this date in 1496,  da Vinci unsuccessfully tested a flying machine.  Maybe.

He was somewhat obsessed with flying and conceptualized several different machines…. during his years.  His designs on paper, were brilliant.  Yet…. they never worked once they were constructed.

But here is the deal.  It has been theorized that da Vinci may have sabotaged his OWN flying machine’s design in the hopes that it would fail.

Among all his other magnificent talents, Leonardo was  a pacifist.  He often  spoke out against the possibility that his ideas and inventions might be used for military purposes.  The flying machine was at the top of this list.

So low and behold they never worked.  I have a sneaky feeling that theory is true about da Vinci canceling his own flights.  He could see the bigger picture.  He put aside his own gains, in order to help the greater good.

None of his flying machines in war. No way.  No how.

I think we all have these same life decisions to make.  Maybe we aren’t deciding things on such a grand scale, but we can make good decisions each day.  We can make assurances to be good to people. We can choose to be kind, and caring, and compassionate.  We can deliberately decide to make a difference to someone each day.

This day.

And that…. I THINK….  is spreading your wings and flying.

Genius is talent set on fire by courage.  —  Henry Van Dyke

The universe has no restrictions. You place restrictions on the universe with your expectations. —  Deepak Chopra