LOL for my friend

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THE TEXT BOOK pictured above is a gift from my friend of many years. I had mentioned one morning as we drove home from a coffee klatch that my granddaughter is interested in science. I told him she is a senior in high school and now looking at universities where she can pursue higher-level studies. He responded enthusiastically, saying that he hoped she would, because he feels the sciences can use the intellects of more women. As a scientist himself, he said he had a book she might enjoy, and since he had just received a newer edition, he was happy to give this one away. The next time I saw him, he gave me the book above, still with the paste-it notes he had used to mark important pages.

One might regard all of this as friendly, caring and generous, as do I. But there’s something else: My friend is in his 90s. He has been drawn to science since his days in elementary school. As a curious boy, he said he always found something to take apart and rebuild, clocks and motors and radios and who knows what else. He went to a very good engineering school and did very well. He kept on learning and eventually earned his Ph.D. Then he worked at well-known laboratories, taught, and all the while kept on learning.

Recently, he showed me and a handful of friends his personal home library and its 7,700 volumes. That’s not a typo; he has a lot of books. Plus several computers, including a couple that he built himself, and a half dozen monitors. He has loaded flight simulators and war games (one of his interests is military history), and he has all of Winston Churchill’s books plus most of what’s been written about Churchill, the leader he considers among the most gifted in history.

His health isn’t the best, but his mind is sharp as anyone’s. We disagree about many political issues, but that hasn’t interfered with our friendship. I figure he’s so smart that he’ll eventually see things my way, and from such quips we get a dose of laughter, the medicine we all need.

So, one day not so long ago, my friend revealed to me that LOL for him means something special. Laugh out loud or lots of laughs are fine, but for him it’s Love Of Learning. A Love of Learning — what a good idea. While the book above indicates his ongoing interest in cell and molecular biology, he also has taken up nano technology, brain physiology, and philosophy. He and his wife enjoy their cocktail hour by reading aloud, not only non-fiction, but fiction as well. They even read my second novel, to which he gave a high mark along with a few good suggestions as to how it might have been better.

Aging is a difficult challenge, because it’s common to fear it. Aches and pains come with it, and so does slipping cognitive ability, chronically for some. At the same time, there is a blessing of additional time that can be used in productive and healthy ways, such as learning something new. The cliche is “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” but it’s mostly not true. I say “mostly” because the old dog must be willing to learn, and some dogs just aren’t interested. But with us humans, blessed as we are with free will, the choice to keep learning is ours.

By the way, my friend said LOL stands for something else important: Love Of Life. From that we can see that he’s learned a great deal. The word wisdom is appropriate, wouldn’t you agree?

LOL, my friend! — RJ Stewart