Genius

Here's something random. If I could spend a day with a famous historical personage -- say, just interviewing them or observing their actions for a single day, I'd choose:

Mozart. Certainly a lot of my knowledge of what sort of man he might have been has been influenced by several viewings of the film "Amadeus" over the years. But how I'd love to sit and watch and listen as he composed a part of The Marriage of Figaro or Symphony No. 40.

Picasso. It took a few years for me to fully appreciate the talent of the Spanish painter. I spent much of a day at the remarkable Picasso Museum in Barcelona a few years back, and it was fascinating to watch his work progress from his excellent drawings while still a child to his later work. And what a long, rich life he lived! I think I'd probably want to spend a day with the master sometime in the 1950s or early '60s when he was living on the French Riviera. I've seen a number of photographs of that time, and he looked so content and focused.

Thomas Jefferson. American history lover that I am, can one imagine that excitement in sitting and watchinig as he drafted the Declaration of Independence?!

Leonardo da Vinci. And not while he was painting the Mona Lisa. He had such diverse interests and talents. I think I'd want to observe him working on one of his other, lesser known and, in my own opinion, superior paintings that also hang in the Louvre. There is a gorgeous painting of the Madonna, Jesus, and John the Baptist that is stunning.