Storm

Homo Universalis

Our patron, Klaas van Egmond, has been working on a new book over the past year. Most of you will know Klaas from the lecture he gave in the first week of your studies, as part of the introduction week. In this lecture, Klaas elaborated on multiple things at a high pace, but the main thing that is coming back all the time is the symbolics of the work of Leonardo da Vinci. The things he covered in the short lecture are also being discussed in greater detail in this new book. I think you might remember Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man (the human in the circle and square). The point Klaas made in his lecture, and also makes in this book, is that you as a person should try to stay in this circle, without giving in to other powers or temptations that the current society can have. We need to retrieve the balance between our fundamental values, which according to the book can only be done if we go back to the last moment in time on which we consciously made decisions on these values: The Renaissance.

Last Thursday, the 2nd of May, was the day of the book presentation. This was not just a normal Thursday night. He planned out this day, because it is exactly 500 years after Da Vinci’s death. For this event, Klaas invited a select few. As the board of Storm, we were of course very honoured that we were invited to be part of this.

During this event on a wonderful location (Teylers Museum in Haarlem) the book was presented in front of, among others, the royal highnesses Princess Irene of The Netherlands and Prince Carlos de Bourbon de Parme. After multiple readings and speeches, Jan Terlouw (a famous Dutch writer and former politician) was the first to receive Klaas’ book. Dhr. Terlouw also held a moving talk about the importance of rethinking society. He touched upon the subject of sustainability and future generations multiple times, which was very inspiring for us to see.

After all this, there was a moment for the people present to bring up (deep) questions. We already realised that there were many important people in the room, but it was still overwhelming to hear what everyone was doing or had been doing in the past. For example, one of the men sitting right behind us was part of the Club of Rome, something we only learn about in our study books.

The day ended with drinks and a moment to talk about the evening. We certainly enjoyed the night and I think the topic of the book is worth to immerse yourself in. We have a hardcopy of the book in the Storm room, so if you are interested, please come by and have a look!