Wild Inklings

Ben Franklin

 

Ben Franklin's birthday is today. 

This guy was pure energy. 

Among other things, he was a statesman, inventor, optician, printer, scientist, farmer, electrician, politician, writer, philanthropist, business owner, soldier, philosopher, abolitionist, salesman, wide-ranging traveler, educator, librarian, musician, diplomat, unionist, and sailor. 

If there's one person in history I'd like to meet, it would be Ben Franklin. 

But in the absence of meeting him, he's a great inspiration, don't you think? 

Today is also Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. Wonder what a meeting of those two minds would have been like.

Leonardo daVinci

It's Leonardo daVinci's birthday (1452-1519) today. This guy was one of humanity's greatest -- smart, curious, creative, inventive.

He sketched out things that didn't make their appearance until centuries later, like parachutes and helicopters. He was an artist, philosopher, scientist, teacher, Renaissance man.

Some of his written work is preserved in The Notebooks of Leonardo daVinci. The notebooks are worth a look. They're full of insight into raw creativity. Better yet, they inspire.