One of many, yet in a class of his own, scientist Stephen Hawking remains even in death an example of the human spirit unleashed. His realm included not just science and theory, but common sense and meaning. His life exemplified what we all can strive to be, to share and to have.

While physically melded to a wheelchair, he showed us all what a thoughtful mind can be. He gave us theories on a plain like Einstein’s, yet down to earth, practical, and valid. What Hawking shared was a love for knowledge that made sense and was observable by no other method than the use of the mind. The difficult made graspable through his examples allowed us all to discover the cosmos and the splendid nature of nature itself.

The true value of the life of Stephen Hawking beyond the day to day of a life lived well is the lesson that we all have talents that we can use even though unlike Hawking we often do not. Lost in the day to day, work-a-world burdens, we miss the opportunity to write large the many gifts of the mind that we all hold. Sure, wisdom from children, parents, elders and the arts is etched in our minds, but the realization that we are indeed both scurriers on a pale blue dot in the solar system and giants of conception in our ability to comprehend the universe unlike any other species looms large in the heavens. We are quite remarkable and quite small.

Reflecting on the life of fellow traveler Hawking on a tiny spaceship called Earth is what defines us all. Humanity, sharing its best thinking in real-world, practical ways is what we honor in Stephen Hawking, and in doing so honor ourselves as both the infinitesimally tiny and the universally profound. Thank you for the reminders, sir, as we celebrate your time among us.

Robert Jones

Port Huron, March 14

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