Once upon a time, I attended a high school history class put on by Lawrence Esplin, who actually got me interested in the subject. In one of his classes, he described the term, Renaissance Man, which so inspired me, that I decided that would be my goal. And now that my goate is gray, I realize that concept was one of the primary mottos of my life.

A “Renaissance Man” was a man who had broad interests (now the term often means intellectual or scholarly interests). But later the operative definition was a balance between both the arts and the sciences. Of course, back in the Renaissance, with a smaller pile of books to read and knowledge to know, you could study many fields.

And so I did. I worked hard and studied many different fields and made sure that I found the fascination in each class I attended. Anyone who has read my poetry, or viewed my art, or listened to my music, would obviously classify me as an amateur. But my motivation was not based on an expected audience…

In my vocational field, I am often described as a generalist. I am comfortable designing user interfaces, as well as moving through the middle tiers to the back. These ideals have a dark side in a society which values technical specialization. However, most of my attempts at uniqueness in this regard never seemed too successful.

Perhaps it is just “shiny object syndrome” that I find more interest in each successive field, but I don’t think that is all. The ideas I’ve described, while propelling much of my life, seemed to be themselves propelled by an undercurrent of an ideal that I am only now noticing. I’m just not sure on the word to use.

The early Greeks had ἀρετή (areté), which often gets translated into English as “virtue”, which is not quite accurate. It is more like “excellence”. Richard Hooker defines it as “being the best you can be,” or “reaching your highest human potential.” This word is close, but not quite…

Perhaps the Chinese word, 德 (dé), which is also often translated as “virtue” is a bit closer. This word, which is the second word in the Tao Te Ching is sometimes translated as “inherent power”, and, while mystical, describes the manifestation of the Tao. Of course, this means I have to define tao.

The Tao is the natural way of the world. Each person has a variation on this subject, and working with this inner nature should be each person’s goal. This “working” is what I mean when I talk about this 德 (dé).

This Te word articulates the concept that excellence is relative based on the individual, but also includes the notion of incorporating the inner harmony with the world.

Near the end of Robert Pirsig’s book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, he makes a correlation between areté and quality. Maybe the best description is quality of life. If you ask a person who lives in the Alaskan bush and someone who lives on 5th Avenue in New York if they have a high quality of life, they may both say they do. It is unique for each person, but it isn’t automatically realized…

In my quest for quality in life, I haven’t strived too much, but it didn’t just come. There is a do without doing sort of attitude where you work with an inner nature, and the quality appears for tea. Of course, that is my perspective, and yours may be quite different.