We have lost Stephen Hawking, one of the great men of our time. I don’t pretend to understand much of what he conceived and articulated. I’m a writer: I have black holes of my own to contend with.
What I do appreciate is that he made science interesting and relevant to a large audience. He shredded any preconceived notions we might have had about what a guy in a wheelchair could contribute to society.
Today, at a Parisian cafe, an English-American friend and I commiserated over his passing. Her father owns a bed and breakfast near Cambridge, and she spent summers there, in Hawking’s fiefdom.
She chuckled in her coffee as she related the more-than-occasional instances she would be driving her car, turn a corner, and almost run over one of the greatest intellects of our time. “He’d be going full blast, hell on wheels, literally. He stopped for no one and nothing in that damn wheelchair,” she related, “and I’m hitting the brakes and screaming like a child, thinking, Oh my god, I almost killed Stephen Hawking! Again!”
We laughed, then, after a moment of silence, agreed that he had lived well, given mightily, and would be remembered always.
Well played, sir. Adieu.
- BGT
“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. Stephen Hawking” I take Mr. Hawking’s meaning to be succeeding at making the world a better place. I am appalled at how many people sit on their laurels, doing nothing of consequence, just planning their next cruise or shopping trip. We all are limited in some way, sometimes invisibly. Everyone, everyone can do some thing, some small thing that matters. Stephen Hawking, you had a good run and will be missed.
Thank you, Mary. Well said. – BGT
A giant for sure. But quite tragic actually for perhaps the greatest mind of our time to end life as an athiest and miss the chance to spend eternity with the Creator of all that he studied so welll as well as the One who would have perfectly restored his body in heaven. My sadness of this day.
Thank you, Joel. Who knows what understanding he had as he probed the secrets of the Universe. – BGT
“All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.”