Team Descartes
Team Descartes is a community to support Americans to reach their potential. Daycart is the name for the team mascot or team members.
Our team name and mascot had to represent our best qualities – awareness, vision, understanding, thinking, and making good decisions.
Descartes=Genius
Philosopher, Mathematician, & Life Coach.
Daycart = Mascot of Team Descartes, or members of Team Descartes, like us.
We think, therefore we win - health, fitness, & energy.
Discovery
The bald eagle stood out as a mascot option. Wild birds don’t get obese because fat birds can’t fly. Eagles’ have dense, highly effective brains and great vision. The bald eagle was selected by America's Founding Fathers to symbolize the potential of America.
“The eagle with its keen eyes symbolized perspicacity, courage, strength and immortality, but is also considered "king of the skies" and messenger of the highest gods.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_(heraldry)
With my average SAT verbal, I thought – “Perskipittywhatty???”
A link away:
Perspicacity is a penetrating discernment—a clarity of vision or intellect which provides a deep understanding and insight.
In 17th century Europe René Descartes devised systematic rules for clear thinking in his work Regulæ ad directionem ingenii (Rules for the direction of natural intelligence). In Descartes' scheme, intelligence consisted of two faculties: perspicacity, which provided an understanding or intuition of distinct detail; and sagacity, which enabled reasoning about the details in order to make deductions. Rule 9 was De Perspicacitate Intuitionis (On the Perspicacity of Intuition). He summarised the rule as;
Looking Good, thinking better
We should totally focus the vision of the natural intelligence on the smallest and easiest things, and we should dwell on them for a long time, so long, until we have become accustomed to intuiting the truth distinctly and perspicuously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspicacity
That’s what we want - to see past the false happy-happy-joy-joy culture surrounding dangerous hacks like sweetness and see the reality that they harm us. For me, it took months to grasp that sugar and refined carbs had been ruining my health, and the health of most Americans: sweetness=love is a lie, sweetness=illness is the truth.
Descartes
Wrote “Cogito, ergo sum,” or “I think, therefore I am.” A concept that laid the foundation of modern philosophy.
Was a tutor to royalty – we’d now call him a life coach.
Taught about the disconnect between what our senses tell us and reality. For us, things might be designed to taste great and yet, be terrible for us, they deceive us
Was a strong believer in mind over desires. He was optimistic and taught that ‘the weakest of souls can gain mastery of their passions (habits)’.
Studies were wide ranging – He advanced math, science, and philosophy - yet remained focused on health. He wrote to the Marquess of Newcastle that, “the preservation of health has always been the principal end of my studies.”
Descartes influenced the American Revolution.
“In tandem with men like John Locke, John Hobbes, and Voltaire, Descartes spurred society to re-examine its traditions and institutions, leading to massive social upheaval. Both the American and French Revolutions were based on Enlightenment theories, and the ways we approach science, math, philosophy, and the idea of the self were radically transformed during the period.”
http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/descartes/context.html
In summary:
The Eagle symbolizes "perspicacity" and "perspicacity" was taught by Rene Descartes.
The founding fathers selected the American Bald Eagle as the nation’s symbol. They also studied Descartes.
Descartes is pronounced Daycart.
Team Descartes strives to help Americans and America reach their potential. Our team mascot, Daycart, is a not-so-bald, American Bald Eagle, with Descartes’ mustache and hair.
“We Think, therefore We Win - Health, Fitness, and Energy.”
Note: About Descartes being pronounced “Daycart.” I read the book Descartes Bones by Russell Shorto a few years ago. Since I had never taken French, I clumsily read his name as “dez – kart – ez” –every time, thousands of times. I wish I’d known that it’s pronounced the shorter, smoother “Daycart.”