-Einstein
I almost feel bad for good ol’ Einstein now that I think about it. He must have been SO curious about how the universe worked fundamentally that he HAD to figure out just what was going on. How does the earth pull me down when I am not touching it? How does the sun keep the earth spinning around it from millions Of milea away? There was NO way in his mind that he was going to die without some reasonable explanation for this.. So he thought and thought and thought and thought about how things worked. What’s stuff made of? What would it be like to be riding on a space ship traveling he speed of light?
I can only imagine the depth of thought that was churning inside of his brain as he sat at his desk. Since he was pondering such fundamental questions of physics that no body really knew about, he had to think outside the box. This is what allowed him to come up with the theory that space is a fabric, and stuff stretches that fabric because it is embedded in it. So other stuff that passes by will naturally go in the direction of the other stuff simply because that’s traveling a straight line on the fabric. But the fabric happens to be bent around a massive object like a bowling ball on a trampoline. It’s a bending of straight lines that causes massive objects to move towards each other , not the actual objects attracting.
No one had thought of such an idea before. He had to reach into the deepest bowels of his imagination and out his perspective if the world in so many different angles that it allowed ideas to arise that would normally seem non intuitive.
The skill of changing your reference points when looking at life is a difficult one to begin with, but Einstein excelled at this, and was able to bend and stretch his brain.
I try hard sometimes to put myself into someone else’s head, but it’s not always easy to fully get there, and it takes practice. It’s like trying to master meditation… Completely shutting off the normal voice in your head and trying to listen to someone else’s voice by imagining being in their shoes. Most people will say they understand what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes, but they never really put in the brain power. It takes at least 5 minutes of solid concentration. At the end of fully transporting your consciousness into someone else’s, you should be drained, like how you feel after a two hour exam.
And that’s how Einstein must have felt. All the time. I wonder what kind of snacks he ate to keep his energy levels up. No chewy bars?
“The cure for boredom is Curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”
I let curiosity drive me. I think we all can agree that we are all insatiably curious as kids. Well, ever since I was a kid, I knew I never wanted to grow up. I’m proud to say that that part of me never will change. It will only grow and evolve itself, with more curiosity coming with each piece of new knowledge.
I want to know everything. I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I would love to know the true nature of the universe and existence. Of course! Wouldn’t you? Our place in the universe? Or the question of all questions: how did I get into this body. Try that one on for size.
There pretty much isn’t a topic I wouldn’t love to become knowledgeable about. Sometimes I think that there just isn’t enough time to learn all the things I want to learn! To scratch all those curi-itches.
Well, on my quest to live forever and know everything (like, god, I guess?), at least until I die, I will never be bored.
~here’s to a life committed to lifelong learning.
