No One Noticed when Icarus Fell

Look down and you’ll miss the splendor

Author

R. H. Sattaur
February 25, 2025

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Would you have noticed when Icarus fell?

Let’s take a look at how the question proposed by this painting attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder has deep and relevant implications about humanity today:

  1. Social media is digital cloud-gazing.

In the painting called “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”, a shepherd gazes up at the sky, missing Icarus drowning in the ocean.

Social media can turn your mind off and distract you from something spectacular or urgent.

The most successful do not use social media for distraction. They use it for:

  • research

  • ancillary learning

  • digital discovery

  • networking

They also use it infrequently because the world around them offers a deep and unending stream of information and inspiration.

  1. The ordinary and familiar entraps us.

In the painting, a man plows a field, unaware of an Icarus who tried to touch the sun.

Our processes and routines are important, but a lack of inspiration or awareness entraps us into a false sense of security and stability. True growth is growth that is inspired and adaptable.

Plow your field, but don’t forget to look for more from heroic people in your life and those who strive for greatness.

  1. We only know as much as we search for.

This painting shows some of the variations of ignorance of mankind.

What do you know about history? About the country you live in? About the communities you’re a part of? About the streams of influence that dictate your daily and yearly actions?

Have higher standards for yourself. Seek to learn more about everything that has an influence over you or that you may have an influence over. You do that by interacting with your environment.

  • talk to people

  • engage with your community

  • seek more information

  • search the digital environment for interesting content

  • make the most of your free time

  • put yourself into uncomfortable situations

The world is only as stimulating and marvelous as your perspective of it.

Open your eyes to a world full of wonder, hope and spectacle.

Be valiant. Remain human.