2007.11.29 Einstein

I just finished reading Einstein, by Walter Isaacson. Einstein, as a person, to me is even more fascinating than he was before. My mother gave me the book for my birthday, and I was a little slow in reading it (it was my right-before-I-go-to-sleep book). As a book it was a little slow at times. I don't think it was the topic of the book that caused that, but probably the time of day/night and the amount of incomprehensible physics. I'm not an official on Einstein, nor am I well versed on many historical figures. Much of who Einstein was and his ideals spoke very clearly to me. There were two things (among others) that I feel really did it:

“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.”

I couldn't have said it any better.

One other thing that made me smile was that Einstein named his boat (which he loved to sail), Tineƒ, which is Yiddish for a piece of junk. I loved that. I used to have a car which I fondly referred to as Shania, since the car would (once it hit about 72 mph), shimmy, shake, and make the earth car shake (don't get it? It's about 3:20 in.). I've named things “dajunx”, “The POS PC”, told people I drive a 1990 POS, and named something “Chibola” (El Salvador slang for "thing"). I'm sure there are other names I've given that are similar. Every one of those names is given with affection.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book and understand that it won't do the same for everybody else. Einstein was truly a fascinating individual.

Tag(s): entertainment