The Next Renaissance

If you’re like me, you’ve been finding that these stay at home orders are really causing you to have a lot of more free time. While at first this sounds like a great thing, too much free time also gives me a lot of time to think. Anyone who knows me knows this can be a recipe for disaster, because my brain left to its own devices can think of a lot of horrible things that can happen.

I was surfing Facebook, and I noticed something that is slowly happening. People are picking up crochet hooks and learning to crochet, paint brushes and learning to paint, and baking amazing creations. The time that we used to use to spend pursuing our normal lives is now being spent on the arts. Why is this happening? And what will it mean? I think of it as a second renaissance.

The First Renaissance

If you’re familiar with history, you know that the Renaissance was a time of learning and reformation of the culture during the 1450s-1600s. There was a plague upon the land, and it killed over 20 million people. The Bubonic Plague claimed many lives, and forever changed the lives of those that survived it. People sheltered in place, terrified that they would be the next victim of the plague. Because they were trapped in their homes, with lots of time, something started to happen. They begin to create.

They invented clocks, flushing toilets, and the microscope, among many other creations. People painted masterpieces, wrote plays and novels. Others turned to religion and freedom of expression. Ideas flew around, and the world was changed forever. For the better.

Living Like They Were Dying

A culture started among the people of Italy, one of the hardest hit by the Black Plague. People all expected to die of this dreaded and incurable disease. And they began to live like each day was their last. What would that be like? If you have nothing to lose, and all the time in the world, what can you make? What problems could you solve, what art could you create if you weren’t afraid of the failure, because you could be gone at any time?

What I’d like to think is that people began to be a specific kind of farmer. They sowed their despair, and somehow harvested hope from it. What would you do, if you were no longer afraid of the consequences of failure? What if you approached life like it was fleeting? Well, I’ve got news for you. It is!

Cue the ‘Rona

So what kind of situation do we have ourselves in now? While the Black Plague may be an extreme example of what a pandemic’s effect on culture could be, it also brings me a lot of hope. What if I took this opportunity to start a renaissance of my own? What if I taught myself to do something that I didn’t know how to do before, unafraid of the failure that might occur? Who’s going to see it if I do fail? I’m trapped inside of my house, anyway.

Now that we are actually in a real life pandemic situation, I will be looking for the seeds of hope that people are planting to sprout. I feel that we are at the precipice of creation, poised to jump our culture forward, if we can only learn from history.

So what is a passion that you may have been putting off learning? What art could you be producing, now that the fear of failure is lessened? I think it’s high time we all jumped on this opportunity to change our lives and start becoming farmers of hope. History has taught us that it’s possible. I am going to use this time to my advantage, and reinvent my idea of renaissance, I’m going to spend this time wisely, like I have no fear.

Join the Renaissance!

Pick up a new skill, like needlework or painting. You can pretty much learn how to do anything from a Youtube video now, anyway. Why not try it out? If you’re still harboring some feelings of inadequacy, check out how failing leads to success here. If there’s nothing to lose, there’s no reason not to get started right away. So far this quarantine I’ve learned how to cut a Caesar haircut (and it came out pretty good), make dreadlocks, and I have been working on my journaling and writing. I made a quilt top and countless masks. I’m becoming a renaissance woman!

What have you always wanted to learn? What’s holding you back? I think that now is the time to put those fears aside and take the plunge. It may be nothing, but it might also be the next Mona Lisa. What if you never find out because you never took the chance?

Over to You

Time to plant hope! Please share with me on Facebook or here about how you’ve been working on your own personal renaissance while you’re on quarantine. Skills that you’ve discovered, things that you’ve learned, and items that you’ve created. Plant hope, and share your harvest! Until next time!