Thursday, April 12, 2012

Sapere Vedere - The Words of Aspire (#5 of 11)


Sapere Vedere
Lesson #5 in an Eleven-part series based on Aspire by Kevin Hall














What a wonderful word – Sapere Vedere.  It feels good to say it. 


If you struggle with the enunciation, as I did at first, try this:
sah-Pare-ay-veh-DARE-ay


A simple meaning is this:  Learning to see beyond the clouds.

Breaking it down further, it looks like this: 
Sapere means knowing how
Vedere means to see

Sapere Vedere is knowing how to see.

When growing up in Tennessee, I often heard this phrase:  “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

Kevin says, “Those with sapere vedere say ‘I’ll see that bridge before I cross it’.”


Another way to phrase this is:  Believing is seeing.

One of my favorite quotes hangs on my office wall –

Only those who can see the invisible can accomplish the impossible.


Card Walker, former president of the Disney Corporation was attending the grand opening ceremony for Epcot Center.  During the ceremony, he whispered to Lillian Disney, Walt’s wife, and said, “I wish Walt could have lived to see this sight.”

Lillian response was:  “Oh, he did.  He saw everything just as it is today.”
Walt Disney was a visionary legend.  He could see things in his mind’s eye that were months and years into the future.  He dreamed big and in living color, with detail.

Walt Disney had Sapere Vedere.

Kevin quotes Myles Munroe, author of “The Principles and Power of Vision” with this thought: 

“Sight is a function of the eyes; vision is a function of the heart.
Vision sets you free from the limitation of what the eyes can see
and allows you to enter into the liberty of what the heart can feel.
Never let your eyes determine what your heart believes.

Never let your eyes determine what your heart believes!

That is as profound as it gets, my friend. 

Sapere Vedere, vision, sight, insight – it all speaks of faith.  Faith in our selves, in our dreams, in our vision of a life to come. 

And of course, for those of us who embrace a faith-based religion, we are all over the faith concept. We are people of faith, we have faith, we demonstrate faith, and we live a life of faith. 
Our faith is in the God of the universe.

I guess that means God was the original example of Sapere Vedere.

In Kevin’s afternoon visit with Arthur, he is tutored on a deeper level with this insight.  Arthur says, “Wisdom is knowing what we saw. Vision is knowing what we see.  And sapere vedere is knowing how to see.”

In the book of Proverbs, there is a verse that says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” 

Arthur continues, “With vision, people look ahead with confidence.  “Confidence” means to go with faith.  Clear vision allows us to proceed with faith in ourselves.”


Leonardo da Vinci said, “May your work be in keeping with your purpose.”

Purpose and vision.  They go hand in hand, don’t they?

My vision gives me purpose.  My purpose becomes my vision. 

In closing, I’ll borrow from Kevin’s words again.

“The two most important days of our life are the day we were born and the day we discover what we were born to do.” 

What were you born to do?
What is your purpose?
How is your vision?


May we all learn to see beyond the clouds.

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