Einstein

Einstein's own explanation for his creativity doesn't sound anything like genius. Normal adults don't think about the problem of time and space, he once said. "That's above all the work of children. I, on the other hand, developed so very slowly that I first started to think about space and time as an adult. Naturally, I got deeper into the problem than an average child."

Albert Einstein is one of my few hero's. I frequently have a quote from him in the header of Middle Earth Journal. In Germany, a country he left in 1932, they are honoring Einstein on the 50th anniversary of his death.

Germany is honoring the 50th anniversary of the death of Albert Einstein with a series of lectures, conferences and events. A look at history's only pop-icon physicist.

The story goes that in 1931, Charlie Chaplin invited Albert Einstein to a screening of his film "City Lights." As they drove into town, the crowds along the roadside cheered and waved.

Chaplin turned to his guest and said: "The people are applauding me because everybody understands me, and you because nobody understands you."

Although his work eventually led to nuclear weapons he was if not a pacifist someone who believed war should be the last resort.

A committed pacifist, Albert Einstein lobbied for a single world government. In the area of peace and conflict studies, Einstein's positions are still current, said Thomas Held of the German Foundation for Peace Studies. Einstein had spent a good deal of time contemplating what a political means to peace might be.

"He wasn't a pure pacifist," said Held. Einstein had also thought about the limits of civilian means toward peacekeeping, and had asked himself when the military would need to intervene. Thus Einstein, fearing the Germans would build atomic weapons, wrote a letter to then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt recommending the Americans build an atom bomb. It was a recommendation he later regretted.

This is reflected in the quote I have over at Middle Earth Journal now:"If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith."