Private Life

A couple of years ago I read a book with the title “Einstein: His Life and Universe” written by Walter Isaacson. This book is a biography of Dr. Einstein. According to the book, when teaching theoretical physics in a university, Dr. Einstein said to his students “You can ask me anything that you are interested in except for my private life.”

Indeed, Dr. Einstein had a deep story in his private life. He and his first wife had two boys and one girl. Or more correctly, Dr. Einstein and his girlfriend who would become his first wife got the girl before their marriage. The girl, however, was transferred to a friend of the wife soon after her birth, and Dr. Einstein had hardly or never contacted the girl after her leave. The reason why she left was unclear.

The younger son of Dr. Einstein had disability in his mental health, and did not have good physical strength. Although his first wife always took great care of the younger son, he passed away in relatively younger ages, I forgot the correct age, but probably in the 20s of the younger son.

The first wife of Dr. Einstein was his classmate in their university. Her major was physics, and had a good talent in science. She helped so much Dr. Einstein develop special relativity when he was 25 or 26 years-old. The relationship between her and Dr. Einstein was good in their initial stage of the marriage, but later, it got worse and worse. They lived together at one time, but lived in a separate location at other time, and finally they were divorced.

I think that the reason why Dr. Einstein did not want to talk about his private life to his students was simple; it was too long. It would take too long time to explain his private life as per requests from his students. Actually, the author of the biography required more than 800 pages of a paperback to explain his private life in place of Dr. Einstein.

On the other hand, how about my private life? I have little to talk about. I have a wife, but no kids. When I am out of office, I usually read novels, listen music from YouTube, write this kind of posts, or strengthen background knowledge of my profession by studying technical books. I like to walk around my town or take a bicycle just to go around. Nothing seems special, and everything seems usual.

I have made some friends through activities of a non-profit organization, Citizen Science Initiative Japan. A head office of the organization is very close to my home, it took just five to ten minutes by walk from my home to there. About once in a month, I visited the office and talked with friends about something. In recent days, out topics were mainly related to 3.11. Many of the people gathering at the office have their interests in science, and their professions are also related to science. Thus, it is comfortable for me to contact them since sometimes we do not need additional explanation or clarification when talking about science.

A record of my private life is important. Although or because my private life is not special, I try to keep recording my viewpoints on my daily life. This motivation originates from my primitive desires.