Master Durer's Gift

On April 28, 2010, in Leadership plus, by Neculai Fantanaru

Continuously assert the respect for your leadership, honoring your role through a healthy mentality and through your skill to enliven spirits.

The troubles weren't over neither for Mikael, nor for his friend Antti. They had been through a lot together, they had suffered a lot. But one day, on their journey, they stopped in the town of Nürnberg, where they met master Dürer, a very famous man, a complete sketch artist, and above all, a man of great erudition, to whom even the princes sought to enter in his favors. In spite the fact that he had an apparent simplicity in his calm voice, he dominated those around him through intelligence, talent and knowledge.

Almost a whole day Mikael talked with Master Dürer, who told him about all the knowledge he had accumulated, about his life philosophy, about his vision. When they parted, the master gave him three engravings, which he certified with his signature, next to which he wrote his name. He also gave him a letter of recommendation for the painter Titzian, telling him to pay him a visit when he gets to Venice. And, in the end, with a joy that surprised the young man, the master told him, before goodbye:

- Mikael, you have eyes that can understand the message of art, is a gift you have received from God and which you must never neglect, but develop whenever you are given the chance.

Master Dürer's advice mattered a lot, making Mikael understand why it is better to look at the things around him with more interest, with more attention, devotion and joy, like a real artist. Ever since, Mikael started to see everything around him differently. His life became richer when he started to appreciate the beauty of shapes, proportions and colors, the beauty of the things around him.

But the great gift that Mikael received from master Dürer, whom he cherished as an extraordinary man, was the fact that he opened a new perspective on live, on what is important and defining for his existence, on the world, giving him a state of inner peace. Practically he learned Mikael to sort what is really important to know and understand for his evolution, of what can be left out.

Chance or providence?

Mikael had the opportunity to know an exceptional artist on which chance brought in his way and whom he never had the privilege to ever meet again. For, as a suffering patient who needs a very good doctor that he will make an analysis, to tell him what is the disease he suffers from and then treat him accordingly - so Mikael, whose life is immersed in a deep state of apathy and depression because of so many troubles he had passed through, so he badly needed someone to give him moral and spiritual support and get him out of his state.

Antti was a good friend, loyal and decent, but not a visionary, not a pioneer, not a perfect mentor who, with great interest and trust, to be able to open his eyes at every turn towards a wider horizon, while increasing his lust for life.

Dominated by a superior power

Than a cheap mentality, rather a healthy one. Master Dürer was, besides a complete artist, a man with a flawless moral conduct, a man with high ideals, very cultivated, very talented and with a lot of goodwill, who awakened, in a very short time, in Mikael the thirst for knowledge, for life, helping him get rid of a great part of the imperfections he had. Making use of the unexpected and extraordinary gift of the master that of seeing life in more colors than just black and white, to appreciate the beauty of the things around him, Mikael regained his former optimism and will, keeping in his heart a drop of hope regarding his pretty uncertain future.

You cannot see the entire world if your horizon is limited to the width of a street. In any moment, you can learn something new, on the condition that you would want someone next to you to support you emotionally and give you some advice when you need it, especially when you go through hard times, when you don't understand certain things or you can't decide which direction to take.

Such a man, a mentor, must be an extraordinary person, an enlightened personality, great through its individual thinking, with an astonishing persuasion power, from which you can learn with a lot of interest and joy to see everything in a better light a lot of confidence. And with the passion a man puts in everything, and taking into account the things that really matter, establish some higher goals and, with power in your heart, to seek to reach them.

Master Dürer's gift is nothing but an open door to a different perspective, to a different future, which you can reach by following different paths, sometimes less taken, and sometimes unknown by anybody. It is very useful to find a mentor to open that door to an alternate future, perhaps better, and, at the same time, it is very important to know to listen to the meaning of the words of this mentor.

Only a man who, through a healthy thinking and cleverness, manages to inspire spirits and to change destinies, only that man has real leadership skills.

 

Note: Mika Waltari - Mikael Karvajalka, Editura Polirom, 2005.