Stephen Hawking

I was greeted this morning with the sad news of the death of physicist Stephen Hawking.  Like so very many around the world, I was a huge fan of Hawking, in awe of both his mind and his spirit.  I have long been interested in science -- completely as a layman -- and this interest lead me to read A Brief History of Time upon its publication.  While it is somewhat more common now, brilliant scientists explaining their work and concepts in language that the rest of can follow was all-too-rare then, so this was a welcome revelation.  His follow-up books were the same.  And as a dyed-in-the-wool geek, Hawking's appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Simpsons, and The Big Bang Theory have always brought a smile to my face!  I told my wife this morning that I very much hope that Sheldon Cooper is allowed to give the goodbye to his friend that they both deserve.

Hawking was not perfect.  I didn't expect him to be.  I appreciated his amazing courage in facing ALS for so very long as much as his beautiful mind.  In reading several obituaries for him today, one passage from The Huffington Post's writing by Joe Satran and Ryan Grenoble really jumped out at me.

While studying at Cambridge, Hawking met Wilde, a fellow St. Albans native who was a student in modern languages at Westfield College in London at the time. Before the two started dating, Hawking collapsed while ice skating and couldn’t get up. His mother made him go to the doctor, who diagnosed him with ALS and estimated he had just over two years to live. 

Years later, during a symposium at Cambridge on his 70th birthday, Hawking reflected on how much he struggled to stay motivated after his diagnosis. Why work so hard for a Ph.D. when you could be dead in two years? 

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet,” he said. “Try to make sense of what you see and about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”

Hawking didn't believe in an afterlife. I hope that he was wrong and that he can now soar among the stars forever. Regardless, he -- like us all -- was made of star stuff.

14 March 2018