So Dr. Barry got some faculty passes to see the Alan Lightman lecture, and Dr. Dave and I met him at Titanic for drinks and dinner first. You can't go listen to a brilliant theoretical physicist sober.
After a spirited dinner discussion where these long time medical men essentially gave the obituary for Obamacare, based upon the obvious Supreme Court questioning over the past few days, we headed off to the UM Business School Storer Auditorium for the lecture.
Alan Brightman is a rare mix of scientist and humanist. He's written best selling novels, and award winning science papers. The room was packed, and he spoke softly in his lilting Southern accent. It turns out he's a Southern Jew, from Memphis, and he recounted his early childhood, where he built model rockets to someday beat the Russians and Sputnik, and composed a poem about his dead grandfather, which made his grandmother cry.
He realized then the power of words: mere black marks on paper could cause intense emotion.
He spoke about the search for truth and beauty in both science and art, and the ways each discipline goes about its work. He advised the students to do what you can't NOT do in life --which is passion, which is what makes life worth living.
It turns out that a UM Physics Professor was one of Lightman's CalTech classmates, and that fellow introduced Alan. Lightman comes to Miami yearly, for our great culture, and best book fair, each November. The rest of the year he teaches at MIT, or writes ocean side in Maine.
The three of us left when the questions started. Dr. Barry spends countless hours in meetings listening to people who love the sound of their own voices, and, sure enough, the first question was an elderly man telling the brilliant speaker how well read on Einstein he was...
Barry had taken the train from JMH, so I drove him back, and then enjoyed a thoughful, quiet drive home. I reflected on the nature of the cosmos, and subatomic particles, and James Joyce (Lightman referred to the great Joyce story "The Dead"). I also wondered why I don't get more sex...
And the culture week continues today! My old friend Dr. Kenny is off today, and asked me to join him on South Beach to see the new Fiennes movie "Coriolanus." We're going to have lunch at a trendy restaurant, probably Yardbird, and then go see a gladiator movie together. Obviously, we are MOST secure in our masculine heterosexuality...
Kenny and I used to see Shakespearean plays together in high school. I remember driving up to NY Tech to see one. It's funny how things come around again...
Speaking of culture, we were to be on a plane to Paris this Sunday, but it is not meant to be. No problem, really. There's plenty to do here.
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