During yesterday's quest to find something to knit by I caught some of that Spencer Tracy movie where he fights to allow a teacher to teach Darwin's Origin of Species, and later a rather odd Nova episode (on DVD, borrowed from the library, and so possibly ancient) that explained e=mc2 and how I'm supposed to get a higher-uppy 2 on blogger I do not know so rest assured I mean 'squared'.
(the Nova episode was odd because so much time was spent dramatizing the love lives of the scientists it profiled. To be sure, one did die as a result of an illegitimate pregnancy too late in life to be safe, but do we know that another spent his wedding night trying to engage his gorgeous and distracted bride in a discussion about whether a piece of metal loses mass if it rusts away?)
Most of what I took away from the day is not so much actual scientific understanding but an appreciation for the pure obsession that has to drive great scientific discoveries. The meticulous study and experimentation and notetaking and trial and error and thought and so on. The persistence. The tenacity, if you want another word that means the same thing and would be redundant if these people weren't just so crazypants over finding the answers to their questions.
I appreciate it because I am doing the same darn thing with Project #9, aka the one I didn't start, am not thinking about, do not feel the least bit controlled by, and for which I am not swatching and researching and notetaking and frogging and reknitting another way or thinking about. At all. Yep: me and the scientists. Peas in a pod.
And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to - erm, bake brownies. Toodles!
1 comment:
That is such a good description of what it's like. I recently saw Winds of Heaven - a film about the life and art of Emily Carr. It interested me in her life and I am now reading her biog. She was very passionate but also very misunderstood and always felt un-loved, un-appreciated and generally out of sort with humanity. I think most obsessed, persistent, tenacious people feel that. Good luck with #9.
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