Poems

Poetry turns all things to loveliness: it exalts the beauty of that which is most beautiful, and it adds beauty to that which is most deformed: it marries exultation and horror; grief and pleasure, eternity and change; it subdues to union under its light yoke all irreconcilable things. It transmutes all that it touches, and every form moving within the radiance of its presence is changed by wondrous sympathy to an incarnation of the spirit which it breathes: its secret alchemy turns to potable gold the poisonous waters which flow from death through life; it strips the veil of familiarity from the world, and lays bare the naked and sleeping beauty which is the spirit of its forms.

(Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defense of Poetry, 1812)

Relativity - Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder

Albert Einstein said:

“If relativity is proved right the Germans will call me a German, the Swiss will call me a Swiss citizen, and the French will call me a great scientist. If relativity is proved wrong the French will call me a Swiss, the Swiss will call me a German and the Germans will call me a Jew.“

It basically says if I came to be famous, I’ll be respected. If not I’ll be labeled a Jew. And you know how followers of Moses were treated during World War I & II.

This is in parallel with the great saying: “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. Einstein being called a German or a Jew is solely depended on the opinion of the observers based on who they perceive Einstein to be – Great or Not-Great.

So how are these related to his theory of relativity?

In simple language theory of relativity can be best defined by the following example:

Get a friend and ask her to stand right in front of you facing you. Put a long desk in the middle so it separates you from your friend. Place a book on the far right hand side of the desk (or the floor if you don’t have a desk) so it is on your right hand side. Then ask her the following question: “Is the book on the left or right?”

She will answer “left”. She is certainly wrong because you placed the book on the right and it is on your right. But -- it appears on the left to her. So who is right and who is wrong here? You or your friend? The answer is that the book is “relative” to you and to your friend. In other words the book is relative to its observer.

One of the fundamentals of theory of relativity states that: “The laws of physics must be the same for all observers”. So it doesn’t matter which way you face to look at the book; the law of physics says that the book stays the same for all its observers regardless of how they face it. The book remains the same book regardless of the observer.

The moral of the story is don’t waste your time proving yourself right and others wrong. Don’t constantly concern yourself with judgments. Things don’t have to be good or bad, right or wrong; they just are. He is not smart or dumb; he just is.

Value everything for their existence not for what they do, or how you perceive them to be. Accept people as who they are not who you think they are.

As Einstein answered:

“I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.”