legacy
my dad showed me his doctoral thesis once. the pinnacle of his academic career was housed in an unmarked, bound black book tucked away in his study. the only things i remember from this show and tell were the carefully penciled in symbols for the complicated equations that peppered its typewritten pages, and on the front, an acknowledgment to my mom for her support.
a few years later, i read a draft of a speech he wrote for a public speaking class. it was about how as a young man, he'd believed that receiving his ph.d had been his greatest accomplishment...until he became a father for the first time. (i was miffed when the sequel about becoming a dad for the *second* time never materialized.)
out of curiosity and with the help of google scholar, i looked up the title of my dad's thesis: "cascade anticrossing and cascade radiofrequency spectroscopy of excited alkali atoms." pretty impressive for a guy newly-immigrated to america. i, for one, have no idea what it means.
it's funny how what we were once most proud can wind up essentially forgotten, relegated to the bottom corner of a bookshelf. there have been few witnesses to my dad's life unfulfilled, and none for many years -- until tonight, when i again briefly cast my eye upon the only remnant of the road he'd abandoned.
a few years later, i read a draft of a speech he wrote for a public speaking class. it was about how as a young man, he'd believed that receiving his ph.d had been his greatest accomplishment...until he became a father for the first time. (i was miffed when the sequel about becoming a dad for the *second* time never materialized.)
out of curiosity and with the help of google scholar, i looked up the title of my dad's thesis: "cascade anticrossing and cascade radiofrequency spectroscopy of excited alkali atoms." pretty impressive for a guy newly-immigrated to america. i, for one, have no idea what it means.
it's funny how what we were once most proud can wind up essentially forgotten, relegated to the bottom corner of a bookshelf. there have been few witnesses to my dad's life unfulfilled, and none for many years -- until tonight, when i again briefly cast my eye upon the only remnant of the road he'd abandoned.