Hello, whoever you may be.
My name is Miranda Sorventi. Perhaps you've heard of me, perhaps not.
Much to my discomfort, I am often referred to as the most intelligent and gifted person who has ever existed. Even worse, I have been burdened with the appelation "the modern female Leonardo da Vinci."
I reject both labels, first because "intelligence" is so many different qualities and abilities, and many of those qualities I recognize that I lack, and also because in my view intelligence is primarily a choice, and primarily a matter of depth and intensity of curiosity, and willingness to indulge that curiosity and to be transformed in the process.
Also, intelligence cannot be separated from honesty, and by that I mean honesty of perception, and honesty with oneself. True intelligence is impossible if you are lying to yourself. So the more honest you are with yourself, the more intelligent you can become. If you are lying to yourself, the way toward true intelligence is blocked.
I do observe that the degree and depth of my honesty is unusual, but degree and depth of honesty with ourselves is also ultimately a matter of choice for each of us.
Second, my experience of "talent" and "gifts" has been exclusively a matter of taking a deep interest in certain matters, then concentrating intensely and for a very long time. Anyone can do this, and then appear to be "talented" if the interest is deep enough, and the concentration sufficiently fierce and sustained.
I will leave aside the constant comparisons to Leonardo, which disgust me, and not only because of the firestorm of controversy caused by my previous negative comments about him, though I stand by those comments.
Yes, I appear to be more intelligent and talented than nearly any other person who has ever existed, but this is only an illusion caused by the intensity, consistency and duration of the interest I have taken in particular subjects and activities.
Please do not be intimidated. I am only a person, just as you are. We already have that weighty, complex, challenging and often painful condition in common.
So again hello, and welcome.
This modest website is an effort to share my journey with you—a journey of the mind, the body and the spirit, a journey of courage, creativity and most of all of morality.
I look forward to your participation, and perhaps getting to know you.
Thank you, whoever you may be, and whoever you may choose to become.
— Miranda
