BRIEF REPORT ON LATEST BOOK READ

Days ago I finished reading Einstein by Walter Isaacson and have loaned it to the husband of our Executive Director. He has the time to indulge in this heavy tome, she says. Many readers would get bogged down with it with its page after page after page of discussion about quanta and the quantum theory, and related terms. Although I didn't understand much of what I read about physics, I plowed all the way through the 551 pages. But the other parts of the book are  easy to read and are most enjoyable. Einstein was a scientific genius who also had a sense of humor and who also played the violin. Sometimes when people thought they were going to hear him lecture, he surprised them by playing the violin instead. That seemed to be quite all right with the audience. Perhaps his most famous quote is that imagination is more important than knowledge. There is more to it than that, but you can check it out easily. Just type in "Einstein on imagination."

It seems to me that if someone reads and has read only books that tell a true story, he probably lacks imagination. Enough said here on that subject.

Einstein was a man who could and did change his mind even about scientific matters but also about politics. At times he spoke for World Government and belonged to pacifist organizations. But when he realized what Hitler was doing in his native Germany, he changed his mind about pacifism, and never went home again. He became an American citizen for it was a place where one could maintain a free mind. Because of his associations with pacifists and a few communists, the FBI kept a thick dossier on Einstein, but he always panned out not to be any more than a good American citizen. 

Einstein was brought up to study both the Jewish and the Christian religions. While he did not accept the Christian religion, he said that Man who spoke from the pages of the New Testament, that Nazarene, was really someone special, or words to that affect. Many people probably think all scientists are atheists. Einstein was not one of them. Perhaps they are the best example of "A little learning is a dangerous thing," while a scientist with much learning like Einstein (in his solitude and with imagination), learns the earth and the heavens didn't just happen with a big bang, but show the handiwork of a master planner, rather a Master Planner. Isaacson did not write enough about this. Einstein died in his sleep at age 76 from an aneurysm that burst. 

This work is a definitive biography of one who is recognized as our greatest scientist. And he had imagination.