This morning I was talking to a cyclist out on the roads regarding the silence of the forest where we were. This segued into stillness, and it’s effect on the athlete. I asked her “If you can not stand perfectly still, without moving or twitching any of your muscles of volition, how then might you expect to ride, run, or even walk in a straight line?” She countered with something to the effect of “And if you can’t pedal in perfect circles, how do you expect to beat me up this mountain?” Cool lady, too bad she must have been twice my age. Anyway, I was thinking about these things today and the stories of Michelangelo and Leonardo came to me. It is often told that Michelangelo, when asked to submit a work to be judged if he was worthy to paint a notable ceiling, quickly drew a perfect circle and handed it over, his work done. As well, Leonardo is said to have once come upon the gates of a city where they did not believe it was truly he, so he drew a perfect circle in the Earth to prove his identity. I think these men would have been incredible athletes, but that is not the point of this post. I want to see how I measure up with others who have five minutes of free time to give this a try.
The picture below shows my submission. On the top are two circles and the letter R. Both were done with my right hand. One is clockwise ending with a ray, the other is counter-clockwise ending with a ray. There is both handwriting and cursive present for further analysis of my ability, or lack of, to draw a circle or a ray with my right hand. The bottom circles, handwriting, and cursive are done with the left hand, indicated with the large “L” to the right of them. The quarters further represent my inferiority to the masters mentioned above. Somebody please humor me here, give it a shot, and only do this once!, no practice. Take your time if you want, but no do-overs you filthy cheaters.
Of course this all makes me wonder how I could still be an unemployed athletic consultant.
