I’d like Brian Cox (physicist not actor) to be my pen pal.
I realize he must be a very busy (popular) fellow, and although I love the idea of us sipping tequila in Joshua Tree staring at the sky while he tells me what the hell is going on out there, a simple pen pal relationship would suffice. I’m not totally selfish, okay?
I’d like to know how his journey began, what his journey’s are like now and what he sees for his future. Sure it might be somewhat one-sided in that I figure he has much more knowledge to impart than I, but one never knows. Maybe I could take him surfing? (With his popularity Laird Hamilton has probably beaten me to it.)
Perhaps I have a few morsels Brian might be in search of? Isn’t that what friendships should provide; a safe environment for further education? Be it scholarly or otherwise? I think he has something I’d like in a friendship, even more than that grin. His grin is telling you things you didn’t absorb in science class but it is also telling you that there is more he will share after school; the stuff that blows your mind but you can’t say on television because it is too mind-numbing to put it in academia speak for us lay people.
Okay I will admit it doesn’t hurt that he looks like he could be in The Verve…but his looks are merely garnish.
I never knew any science nerds in school. All my friends were drama freaks, art snobs or literature misfits. The science peeps seemed in another world unto themselves. Maybe because I figured I would never be able to speak their language – but that would be the fault of my education, no? Today I can’t get enough of the Science Channel and I think it’s because they have figured out a way to communicate a difficult subject in a very human way.
Let’s face it, back in the day science teachers had a look (plastic pocket protectors), smell (Sulfer), and taste (polyester?) that was uncool and boring. I don’t know why. Now they seem like dramatists and artists to me and that makes far more sense. Who knew Geology was sexy? I didn’t. Science is history without the commissioned art work of the Medici‘s.
Okay I will allow that it is probably tedious at a certain point to explain the universe by drawing a circle in the sand like a cave man but from my experience trying to explain a Franz Kline painting can be just as tough -unless explained in the most rudimentary way.
Anyway, I’d love to know people like Brian. I love my friends but lately I’ve a desire for more stimulation, I’ve a curiosity that makes no sense. Why do I want to know more about Iyengar yoga? Not to make my body look like Christy Turlington’s I can tell you. Along with a lean, strong body, yoga and meditation change the body chemistry...if done with true intent. Thats science, right?
Addendum: Gia Milinovich, Brian’s wife is hysterical and I’d like her to be my friend too. Maybe more so…
Related articles
- Who Ya Gonna Call Now? (theupiafiles.wordpress.com)
- Pop Star/Physicist Sees Wonders of the Universe Here on Earth [Video] (scientificamerican.com)
- Science added week commencing 1st August 2011 (somnewbooks.wordpress.com)
- Professor Brian Cox Lecture in the Isle of Man (u-g-h.com)
- brian cox and scientific activism (toomanytribbles.blogspot.com)