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Einstein- Husband, Lover and Father
evilsheep writes "A large collection of correspondence shedding light on Einstein's personal life and perspectives was made public today by The Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Spanning almost 3500 pages, the correspondence encompasses letters to and from his first and second wives and children between the years 1912-
1955.This newly released batch of letters fill in details to create a 'higher resolution' image of Einstein beyond what was previously known of his personal life. The collection has been in the Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University for many years, but was not made public in accordance with the will of Einstein's stepdaughter, Margot, who specified that they not be revealed until 20 years after her death. Margot died in July 1986.
Einstein wrote almost daily letters to his second wife Elsa and to her daughter Margot whilst away from home about delivering and listening to boring lectures, playing music with friends, or trying to stop smoking."
The kicker is that after his divorce from the woman who helped make him famous, the guy married his cousin. Yup, his COUSIN!!!!
Check out cousin marriage. You might be surprised that this isn't illegal and/or controversial. If you're going to complain about the man, find something valid to complain about.
I have a stepbrother with schizophrenia. I've seen the effect it has on his father, my mother, and all of those around him. I've also thought that it may have been better that he never been born. Doesn't mean I wish he hadn't, but it certainly would have been easier.
For years, his father watched him deteriorate, and could get no help for him. No-one treated his problem as serious - until he put an axe in his girlfriend's back. Since then, he has spent his life in institutions (thankfully not prison, which would be no help at all). He cannot live alone, has almost no social skills, and is very easily shaken into paranoid episodes - which cause him to quit taking his meds, which make it all worse. Yet through it all, his father has remained supportive, trying his best to cope with his son's illness, and my mother as well - who volunteered into this relationship, knowing (but perhaps not really knowing) how bad it could get. They do not wish he were never born. But still, perhaps it would have been better... How would you feel, if this were your son?
Thoughts such as these do not make a person less noble. They make him human.
Poor means hoping the toothache goes away.
Didn't Einstein have a daughter from his first marriage that basically disappeared, and whom nobody really knows what happened to her? I always found it curious that such a smart man could also have such a lousy private life.
Do these letters say anything about her?
-> I dislike sigs...
Actually, these new documents seem to change his public image for the better. He used to be known as a completely uninvolved and irresponsible father, but these documents show that at least later in life he really cared about his second wife and one of his kids. People change as they get older. Einstein certainly wouldn't have signed the famous letter to Roosevelt advocating the development of the atomic bomb after the war - although one could certainly argue about whether that means anything.
You might also want to remember that in 1912, Civil War veterans were still being wed to 14 year old girls in arranged marrages.
For all of the screaming you hear about the sacred institution of marriage, it was strictly a political and financial arrangement up until about a hundred years ago or so. The only use the church has for marriage is that it allows tracking of a paternal lineage by creating a 'blessed' family tree - allowing inconvienent bastards to be tossed asside unless extrememly useful.
With all due respect to Einstein, what I really want to see today is a story covering Nikola Tesla's 150th anniversary (he was born 150 years ago today, July 10th 1856).
Sure Einstein had some faults, but don't we all? Instead of reading these correspondences with criticizem for his faults lets just be greatful that we have so much information on him so we can learn from his genius as well as his blunders. Here's to the memory of a great man!!!!
It is all in how you look at things. I don't know how Jews interpret the passages referenced, but the two "New Testament" references cited (aside from #11 and 12) are only pointing to the "Old Testament" reference about which Jesus was being questioned (the idea of brothers successively marrying their sister-in-law if no children produced).
As for #11, this is a bad thing? If divorce were an OK thing emotionally and socially, then this could rightly be a criticism. But divorce is neither. Jesus said only for sexual immorality is divorce an option. What Jesus was trying to eliminate is legalistic thinking of what marriage had become. Divorce was easy and it could have the effect of making women destitute. Marriage is supposed to be more than a contract, and most christians do not think of it as a contract.
The "better not to marry" question is not about marriage particularly, but about salvation. The first cite is about how it would be better not to marry than to commit adultery. Looking at this statement from a Christian religious perspective, it is true. It would be better to have salvation than to commit adultery (any sin really). This is not unlike the studied concept that inventors and other scholars do less work and have fewer "breakthroughs" _after_ they get married. Maybe Einstein shouldn't have been married, he might have had another breakthrough.
The second cite is more to the point of the criticism. But again, what is St. Paul saying. It would be good not to get married, but because the sexual urge is strong, please get married as it is better to find salvation in marriage than to forsake salvation. What about the not getting married aspect? It again is about salvation. Marriage, family, children take up a lot of time. If you were not married you could devote this time to religious pursuits. This is what St. Paul is expressing.
The third cite of #12 (I Cor 7:27-28) is actually about divorce (When criticizing it might be best not to blindly cite what others have put together, and to not even cite the original source). What is most instructive is what was left out of the cites from I Cor 7:32-34, 7:38. Passages 35-37 and 39-40 give St. Paul's reasonings behind those cites. Those reasonings I have condensed above.
It is dangerous to be right on a subject on which the established authorities are wrong. - Voltaire
If Einstein's first wife participated in the 1905 papers and was never given credit for such an incredible accomplishment, women were indeed deprived of a role model.
Yes, women can look to Victor Weisskopf, Richard Feynman, and Wolfgang Pauli for inspiration, but it is NOT the same, especially considering that a woman, Mileva Einstein, may have co-authored the greatest physics papers of the twentieth century.
We have always been at war with Eurasia!
is that when my mother was a child, he helped carry her books for her at Princeton after school - my grandmother was working there at the time.
Basically, he was a nice guy to kids, is what I'm trying to say, no matter what other quirks he may have had.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --