The Albert Einstein Memorial in Washington DC. Light played on the puckered bronze figure that seemed to be at the cusp of another enlightening idea. A majestic triumph for Robert Berks, the sculptor who created this work of art. The posture is relaxed, mellow and exudes subdued happiness that comes from seeing truth with a clear mind. The notebook has three simple equations. Simple and profound. They carry the essence of a man who showed us how to explore the universe.
I took a picture. Just after I took the picture, a school bus stopped on the side road and more than a dozen children poured out. Within a minute Einstein had children sitting on his laps, arms and shoulders. The children laughed and waved to their teachers. The teachers, a young man and a motherly lady, were rapidly and unconsciously drawn into the infectious enthusiasm of the children. They moved closer to the children and tentatively touched the bronze arm. The moment was sublime. I should have taken another picture with the children on Einstein's arms. I didn't. I walked away. I am not half as sublime as the occasion. Such is life.
The quotes engraved on the bench on which Einstein sits:
As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance, and equality of all citizens before the law prevail.Joy and amazement of the beauty and grandeur of this world of which man can just form a faint notion ...
The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.
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Here's a link to kids on the statue [Bruce Alberts].
Wonderful. Many thanks.
very nice. I wish the notebook had just some scribbling instead of the famous equations. would have been more subtle and make people think "what did this guy do?"