A Strange First Blog Post
I was going to have my first blog post be on politics, with a special focus on Barack Obama and the media's news coverage of the Democratic primaries, including what seems to be unbelievable omissions on the race issue, and on the complete ignoring of several issues with John McCain's campaign that are terrible enough they should be page one (can anyone tell me his former staff's connection the Myanmar military junta?).
But I have mild ADD, and while tooling around through other daily chores I found out that there are several people who searched daily for the specific term: "A 12th Century Scottish Renaissance Man."
Okay, I'm intrigued. If you don't know now, you will in reading future posts, that I'm all about all things Scottish because of my family background, coming from the Monteath clan. So I'm assuming this means that somewhere there is a university class with an extra credit trivia question, or some very strange other scenario. The 12th century was before the main level of the European Renaissance, but there was an early lesser known time of renaissance that took place during the 12th century.
So why specifically a Scottish Renaissance Man? That's an intriguing search to me, especially since The Scottish Renaissance took place in the early 1700s. So who is this mystery man everyone is searching for? After Google and Yahoo and several other books, I have no idea if they are searching for a genuine person, or if this is wild goose chase of some kind while a professor laughs.
The most likely place to find a true Scottish Renaissance man would be in the early 18th century, not in the 12th. There are many famous Scottish Renaissance Men, many of whom had an influence that would shape the world we now know today. David Hume and Adam Smith are two names that pop up right off that bat as names who had changed the world. Most people will recognize those two names, and if you want some other lesser known ones: Frances Hutcheson, Thomas Reid, Robert Burns, Adam Ferguson, John Playfair, Joseph Black, and James Hutton.
It's amazing how a small, poor nation like Scotland has given the world so much. If you're looking for an older Scottish Renaissance Man, the best bet might be with Blind Harry, the blind epic poet who wrote Wallace, the poem that describes the heroics of William Wallace, and which offers more information on the legend than perhaps any other work.
The other answer in searching for a 12th Century Scottish Renaissance Man is to look at educated Scots of the time in general. The Celts had a very unique culture, in some odd ways similar to the Japanese Samurai culture (and this will definitely be a long post(s) later), in that the Celtic people firmly believed that a true man was not only a great warrior, a wielder of the sword, but a wielder of the pen as well. The warriors held in highest honor could sing epic songs and poems AND hold their own on the battlefield. You had to be both.
That type of culture is what set the course for maybe the most innovative nation in world history. Find Arthur Herman's book How the Scots Invented the Modern World and read a fantastic non-fiction book that pull together this nation's bizarre history and Renaissance which set the course for the world's development into what we know today.
So past Blind Harry, I'm not sure who the now heavily popular 12th century Scottish Renaissance Man is, but that's my odd tangent for the day, and a good introduction to how my mind works and wonders. If anyone ever has an odd thought for the comments section, by all means, throw it my way.
But while I give congratulations to Barack Obama for cinching up the 2008 Democratic Nomination, my thoughts on him and this really unique political campaign season (and I have enjoyed it thoroughly - shame the Republicans didn't have the same rules, because theirs could have gone all the way to the end, too), Barack will have to wait for another blog.
Once again, the 12th Century Scottish Renaissance Man wins out :)
