Being a Modern Renaissance Man

Warning: this article contains partial spoilers for the 1994 movie Renaissance Man, copyrighted images used under the Fair Use Doctrine, and mildly offensive language within quoted text.

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In today's day and age, our world is defined by expectations and specializations: whether you are an intellectual, an athlete, an artist, born with many advantages, born with none, or many other circumstances and molds. Most men alive today have grown within the confines of expectation, told that they must live up to the mold in which they have been cast -or in other words that they have a certain lot in life. I know I personally felt this way growing up, that certain roads had been paved ahead of me and that I had to chose one and one alone. I followed this philosophy for a while, particularly within the confines of the American public education system, only to find myself stifled and suffocated. Despite my limited means, I had myriad interests as a child: sports, nature, literature, history, science, language, writing, and theater to name the more prominant ones. As an adult, I laugh knowing how much time I had to explore these things but little incentive to pick more than just one. The jocks made fun of me for being a nerd, the bookish kids made fun of me for being a jock, and the artists did not consider me serious enough in my craft to accept me. My peers constantly told me I could be one thing and one thing only, and that there would be a moment between childhood and adulthood that I would be forced to make a decision. Thinking back to that point and the crisis I was having, I remember the one thing my father told me with pride, "You are a renaissance man."

Now, while I appreciated the sentiment, I thought this was an odd thing to say to a boy starting high school. Little did I style myself a Leonardo or a Michelangelo or a Copernicus, I still do not. Admittedly, the term "renaissance man" inspires such lofty ideals of resource-rich geniuses with too much time on their hands. The truth is rather quite the opposite, as I later discovered. Let us start with simple definitions. A renaissance man as defined by Merriam-Webster is "a person who has wide interests and is expert in several areas." A renaissance man is a positive term that more people, men included, should embrace and I will tell you why.

One of the greatest examples I can conjure to illustrate this point is a movie that quickly became one of my favorites, the Renaissance Man starring Danny DeVito, Gregory Hines, James Remar, and others.

Renaissance Man stars Dany Devito as Bill Rago, a recently fired marketing executive. In addition to his financial worries, he is divorced and has a daughter. His daughter is an aspiring astronomer and is begging for plane tickets to see a solar eclipse in Mexico with her high school astronomy club but her mother is unable to afford them. She asks him, but between losing his job and the fact that he sees no financial security in astronomy, he denies her. Eventually, he is offered a job with the army by his unemployment agency in which he must teach eight bottom-of-the-barrel recruits how to think and comprehend orders. He is furious, stating he does not know how to teach and that he only knows marketing, but accepts the job due to desperation.

Rago quickly discovers that these kids have turned to the army as a last resort. They were practically forgotten by the education system and their family lives were not conducive to learning when they were young, leading to their present reputations as 'double d's' or 'double-dumbasses'. In attempting to find a way to get them awake and participating, Rago discovers the recruits have an interest in learning about Shakespeare and begins using Hamlet as a way to teach them basic literary comprehension and critical thinking skills.

This method is initially resisted by their drill sergeant, Sergeant Cass (played by Gregory Hines), who thinks that Rago is unruly and undisciplined and that Shakespeare will not help these recruits acclimatize to life in the army or learn to survive combat. However, this changes over the course of the movie. The recruits start off sleeping on duty, misunderstanding orders, second-guessing themselves, and fighting amongst themselves constantly. Most of the drill sergeants and officers think that they will wash out or simply fail basic training. However, after spending time in Rago's class learning to analyze English, criticize the motives of characters within the play, and work together to recite lines with confidence, their abilities to think on their feet and perform their duties as soldiers vastly improve. A turning point is when Private Benitez, played by Lillo Brancato, and is seen as a 'class clown' of sorts, is drilling in the rain with Sergeant Cass and is tasked with reciting a substantial portion of Shakespeare or do extra drills. Benitez then cites his favorite verse, the Saint Crispin's Day speech from Henry V, to the Sergeant and the other units present. This speech is about honor, duty, and brotherhood in the face of battle, and Benitez's conviction and perfect recitation inspire Sergeant Cass to accept Rago's methods.

Over the course of the movie as well, Rago begins to change. Spending time with the army, he gets used to their unusual lifestyle and way of doing things as well as learning that no matter what avenue you take in life, it is always worth pursuing other things. He fights for his recruits advancement, trying to get them the education they deserve in addition to their army training. Despite his financial troubles, he buys his daughter the tickets to Mexico along with a new telescope. He accepts that he will not see eye to eye with the ranking officers he works for, but he begins to see them as friends with mutual interest in seeing their recruits succeed. He also discovers a penchant for teaching Shakespearean literature and begins doing basic calisthenics to improve his health and get a taste what his students do in basic training.

The eponymous 'renaissance men' from centuries past may seem lofty heroes, but the only reason they are called such is for their unwillingness to put themselves in boxes. Leonardo was famous not only for art, but his engineering schematics. Copernicus became an astronomer, but he was also skilled at theology, astrology, medicine, and classics. In the movie, Leon Battista Alberti was mentioned. He was renowned as an architect in his day, but he was also an artist, author, priest, and highly skilled athlete. Now, I do not know about you, but I do not have the resources for degrees in multiple academic disciplines and I certainly cannot vault over a man's head from standing, but I think it is more the spirit of renaissance men we should aspire to rather than literal replications of their feats.

So, while the term itself might be a reference to wealthy privileged men in the past, it is above all a celebration of diversifying one's interests as a matter of expression. Physical, intellectual, and artistic prowess should not be arbitrary distinctions as to the life one is destined for. Football players can be poets and scholars if they chose. Scholars and poets can run a track if they desire. The key to life is not specialization, but fulfillment through experience and opportunity. One does not need to travel half the world in order to feel this (unless the opportunity presents itself), all they need simply do is follow their passions whenever an opportunity to do so arises. Do you have an inspiration for a book? Write it. Do you want to act in a play or sing on stage? Audition. Do you want to try your hand at a sport? Try out. Would you rather come home from a hard shift and read a book for a change? Do it. The worse that can happen is that other people will not appreciate our efforts at fulfillment, and in that case we can still keep at it for our own sheer enjoyment and mental health. The only boxes that matter in this life are the ones we put ourselves in.

I think the true meaning of being a modern renaissance man is thus the refusal to be categorized by others and the wish to live up to only our own expectations. We as modern people are told from a young age what is expected of us, but I think the only person qualified to tell us that is ourselves. Our interests are our own, and how we prioritize them is a decision best left to us. If you want to be a scientist and an artist, an athlete and a poet, or even just plain yourself, that is your decision. To use a popular quote from Shakespeare, "To thine own self be true." The Bard really does have some great advice from time to time.