Where have you gone in times when things seem that chaos is all we have ever really known? No need to explain sir, of course we already know the answer... you’re a little dead at the moment. But that’s ok. despite everything that you have done and given us in the great world of science you are unfortunately remembered for the most destructive creation known to man and therefore the beginning much of the tension facing he world today. Yes it’s sad i know but there are many of us who choose not to remember you in this way, like me i tend to prefer those images of a young Einstein, or those where its obvious that you are finding great amusement in whatever activity you are undertaking at the moment that image was captured.
But i also cannot deny how your crazy seemingly all over the place hair contribute to the "mad scientist" image embraced by those captivated with sci-fi. You know the images, much like watching Frankenstein the scientist dashing around wild eyed in his lab before finding a great discovery and crying out its alive!!!!! Yes my dear dear Mr. Einstein you and all your brilliance are associated with this image.
But let’s get back to you, in those moments captured so long ago... where it seems that you are at your happiest moments. And maybe that’s it, maybe you are because while we know there is always a great form of joy in doing that which you love be it science or mathematics or drawing we all need a break of some form. we need that moment where we can just be. Where being a child or at least childlike is the answer a moment of serenity, an escape from reality. What this tells me is that even though you remained dedicated to your work, your art you recognize the need to have a moment where you can just breathe. Because its not always about being serious, if we all walked around with this stern serious look on our faces then we might as well all dress in gray and change our names to Al followed by a series of numbers making us no different from the people that sit around me at this bar as i write this.
what you tell us in these oh so candid moments is that science though time consuming can and at times is something to be enjoyed. And that though it is a serious field of study that without it i would not be able to sit at this moment and write these words we would still be banging away on the typewriters that you yourself may have used. it reminds us today that science and the continued exploration thereof are necessary. and really let’s just be honest you look like you were probably a pretty fun guy when you weren't busy discovering something for the betterment of humanity.
The shifting back and forth of imagery of Einstein as an old man and as a child is one of the most curious aspects for me of the way he turns up in popular culture. I suspect you're right that figuring out the equivalency of mass and energy leading up to the creation of nuclear weapons introduces a profoundly disturbing reality that the main variations of Einstein iconography try to contain somehow. But why did Einstein get the superfame treatment -- why not Bohr, for example? And why does it resonate so, still, so long after...given that popular culture tends to be characterized by figures that become famous and fade from view, what is it about Einstein that keeps him fending off any later scientific geniuses who might replace him in the public mind? Maybe it has something to do with how Einstein and the image of the child somehow give us something that still answers to keeping our ideas of science larger, rather than narrower...I wonder? Or perhaps that children aren't entangled in politics and large-scale destruction, which serves as a cautionary? rebuking? re-balancing? image via Einstein?
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