For my entire life I have walked the perilous path of
perfectionism. The way is precarious and it is a struggle to balance all of my pursuits.
However, the perfection of never making a single mistake or always knowing the
correct answer is losing its enchantment. Instead, my obsession with
perfectionism has been replaced by a devotion to the idea of a life lived perfectly.
As I see it, a life lived perfectly is a life lived to the fullest, using every
moment and developing every aspect of the self. By continually learning,
mastering every purs
uit, and creating beauty, I hope to live such a life and to
contribute to society as a whole. I have long held this ideal, yet I
continually find myself caught in the mundane grind of daily routine, feeling
too drained to pursue my passion with as much energy as it requires.
However, great life-long learners of the past inspire me to live life fully, despite the necessity of routine.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – perhaps the last true Renaissance Man – is one of
my strongest guiding forces. Goethe was born in 1749 in Frankfurt am Main, the
first son of a retired lawyer and a mayor’s daughter. He spent most of his
childhood in the company of private tutors, learning various languages,
history, and literature and becoming skilled in the arts. As a young adult,
Goethe accomplished more than some people do in a lifetime. He studied law at
the
University
of
Leipzig
, contributed
heavily to the revolutionary Sturm und Drang movement in literature, and
published his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, all before the
age of twenty five. His novel influenced the Romantic Movement powerfully: Goethe
“created the prototype of the Romantic hero” in the young, passionate Werther. Soon afterwards, Goethe
visited the Duke Charles Augustus in
Weimar
and remained there for the rest of his life. Though working as the Duke’s
minister of state,it was at this point that “mastery of life became his chief
concern.” From this point in his life onward
, Goethe devoted himself to
mastering every subject that interested him. In the course of his life he
produced many of the most important works of German literature,
notably Faust; explored the world of science; and even
worked in theatre and the visual arts. Goethe began, and ended, his life
grandly: “a national celebrity at the age of 24, a European celebrity twelve
months later, Goethe was thereafter…prominent, remarkable, and at times
powerful.”
Goethe and I seem to share a common hero – the original
Renaissance Man himself, Leonardo da Vinci. Both men are role models, “people
whose stories are picked up and used by other[s],” like me. Their lives resonate with the way I want to live my
own. Although I may never match the achievements of either da Vinci or Goethe,
I am excited by their ac
complishments and inspired to throw myself passionately
into my own work. To me, the life of a Renaissance Man seems closest to a life
lived to the fullest. Goethe’s life in particular reflects many of my personal
goals: his creativity drove him, his curiosity guided him, and his devotion led
him to mastery.
For example, Goethe was never satisfied with his knowledge of the
world and strove to further understand it through science, literature, and art.
His interests were unlimited. In a sense, Goethe “was perhaps the last European
to attempt the mastery and many-sidedness of the great Renaissance personalities: critic,
journalist, painter, theatre manager, statesman, educationalist, natural
philosopher.” Being a Renaissance Man, though a title itself, is the ultimate
refusal to take on any one role. Perhaps, as Ram Dass explains, instead of
having the problem of “always having to be ‘somebody’” the Renaissance Man is always everybody. Goethe was not limited by the roles he assumed: though a
poet, he had no trouble also being a scientist; though a scientist, he could
just as easily be a statesman. Because Goethe was able to “remain light and
loose – able to play among these various aspects of being without identifying
exclusively with any…[he was] simply free to be.” I too strive for this freedom to pursue my passion, unlimited by
my roles as daughter, student, friend, or anything else.
I also admire and
long for Goethe’s endless creativity. As anyone with myriad interests knows,
there never seems to be enough time to pursue them all. I fantasize about only
needing a few hours of sleep and what I could do with all of that extra time in
the day. However, I can only dream of possessing a creative energy as intense
as Goethe’s. Goethe believed that “one always has time enough, if one
will apply it well,” and apply it well he did. He spent his entire life thinking
and creating, never wasting a moment, and contributed significantly
to
many fields. Though he is best known for his many works of
literature, as a scientist, Goethe also produced “a sizable body of scientific
work that focused on such topics as plants, color, clouds, weather, and
geology.” He thought about these fields in new ways, often challenging the
status quo of his time. In his theory of color, for example, Goethe disagreed
with his physicist contemporaries that color could only be understood as a
purely physical phenomenon. Instead, he explored the way the human brain
interprets colors, a radical step at a time when the scientific community was
interested only in the physics of color. Although we now know that Goethe’s
understanding of the physical nature of color was incorrect, his conclusions
about human perception are surprisingly accurate. Goethe’s contributions, both
in the theory of color and the many other fields he explored, were prolific and
“rarely has a man of letters had so full and varied a life, or been capable of
so many-sided a development…his talent [stretched] in the most diverse
directions.”
Finally, I am
also inspired by Goethe’s almost religious devotion to his work. During his
time studying law at the
University
of
Leipzig
, “Goethe
learned…to use his eyes and to master the craft of whatever he undertook.” Whether practicing the art of government or recording the most
detailed observations of science, conveying raw human emotion through poetry or
learning the fundamentals of law, Goethe pursued his interests with a strict
dedication. By the end of his life, after years of study and discovery, Goethe
“achieved a wisdom often termed Olympian, even inhuman.”
Although Goethe’s accomplishments are staggering, they alone are
not enough to make him the influential figure he was. It is one thing to make a
discovery or to have a brilliant idea; it is quite another to be capable of
communicating that idea to others. However, for Goethe this was not a problem. He
was the most generous kind of genius, sharing his every finding, observation, and
thought with us. Though a scientist, a statesman, a poet and an artist, Goethe
was at heart a writer. His collection of writing is important because it helps
us understand Goethe as an individual and also gives us a sense of his context.
Every important moment, discovery or feeling in his life was captured in his
writing. When in love, he penned poems and songs. In frustration and despair,
he wrote laments and novels like Young Werther. In moral furor, he produced
legal treatises. However, his writing is also crucial to our understanding of
his discoveries. As a theorist, he wrote extensively about his discoveries in
color. As a scientist, he documented his observations with detailed drawings
and descriptions. This is how we come to know the astonishing achievements of
an extraordinary man, and without his writing, Goethe’s life would not resonate
so powerfully with so many individuals.
I am one of those individuals in awe of Goethe’s accomplishments,
and I am trying to follow in his footsteps by pursuing my interests with a
passion. For the past six years I have studied Goethe’s own German, and I
intend to eventually become fluent in it. I would also like to master French,
which is beautiful, and Dutch, which is my mother’s first language.
Academically, I am determined to earn a Ph.D. in whatever field I decide to
pursue. At this point I am most interested in pursuing
biopsychology, so I can better understand how we humans function
neurologically, behaviorally, and emotionally. Outside of my career, I would
like to develop my artistic abilities. On the one hand, I hope to find a way to
pursue my love of graphic design. On the other, I would like to learn how to
more fully appreciate others’ artwork as well. Finally, I hope not only to
develop my outer self, but to cultivate my inner being as well. I hope to
become a more mature person, a better problem solver, a stronger leader, and a
more effective peacemaker. Though this may seem to be merely a list of
different roles I hope to play, ultimately I cannot be contained fully in any
of them. Like Goethe, I intend to dance among them, never limiting my pure
being to any one identity.
With enough time and devotion, I hope to master some of these
pursuits. I am enchanted by the idea of mastery, of studying something so
thoroughly that I understand it from many perspectives, or of practicing an art
so much that it becomes second nature. I see mastery as a variety of things: as
a kind of fulfillment, as a step along the path toward becoming a more complete
person, as a way of living up to my full potential. It is a way of doing what
Joseph Campbell describes as “following your bliss…[which puts you] on a kind
of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that
you ought to be living is the one you are living.” Ultimately, this is the spark of inspiration that Goethe infuses
in me. He set aside everything to pursue his passion. Now, it is my chance to
do the same and follow his example of a life lived perfectly.
Word count after
edits for wordiness, without quotes: 1,098
Final word count without quotes: 1,470
Picture Sources
- Young Goethe -
http://www.kisc.meiji.ac.jp/~mmandel/recherche/grafik/goethe_kauffmann.jpg
- Faust –
http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/thesoundexchange/images/photographs/faust_lge_1098442689.jpg
- Leonardo da Vinci -
http://enathu.wordpress.com/files/2006/08/leonardo-sm.jpg
- Color Wheel - http://www.uni-mannheim.de/fakul/psycho/irtel/colsys/GoetheFarbkreis.jpg
-
University
of
Leipzig
--
http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~intl/summer/zip03.jpg
- Nerves -
http://3danimation.e-spaces.com/3d_images/hi_rez/neurons_color.jpg
