“Anything truly novel is invented only during one’s youth”

This summer I read Walter Isaacson’s illuminating biography of Albert Einstein, the man who is widely considered to be the greatest thinker of the 20th Century. In 1905, when he was only 26 years old, he published four groundbreaking papers that forever changed the way people understood space, time, mass, gravity and energy.

By the time Einstein turned 40 in 1919, at a moment when he was struggling to devise a unified theory of matter, he complained to a friend that “Anything truly novel is invented only during one’s youth. Later, one becomes more experienced, more famous – and more blockheaded“.

Einstein’s frustration at his diminished capabilities as he aged is a phenomenon that is considered common with mathematicians and physicists who seem to make their greatest contributions to science before they turn 40. Einstein remarked to a colleague that as he got older he felt his intellect slowly becoming crippled and calcified.

Why does this happen? In Einstein’s case, it was partly because his early successes had come from his rebellious traits. In his youth, there was a link between his creativity and his willingness to defy authority and the universally accepted cosmological laws of his day. He had no sentimental attachment to the old order and was energized at the chance to show that the accepted knowledge was wrong or incomplete. His stubbornness worked to his advantage.

After he turned 40, his youthful rebellious attitudes were softened by the comforts of fame, renown, riches and a comfortable home. He became wedded to the faith of preserving the certainties and determinism of classical science – leading him to reject the uncertainties inherent in the next great scientific breakthrough, quantum mechanics. His stubbornness began working to his disadvantage as he got older.

It was a fate that Einstein began fearing years before it happened. He wrote after finishing his most groundbreaking papers: “Soon I will reach the age of stagnation and sterility when one laments the revolutionary spirit of the young“. In one of his most revealing statements about himself, Einstein complained: “To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself“. He found it even harder as he got older acknowledging “the increasing difficulty a man past fifty always has adapting to new thoughts”.

Einstein brilliance is beyond compare, but I can relate to his observation about doing your best work when you are young. When I look back at my personal life and work career, I recognize that I was at my most ambitious and innovative during the decades of my 20’s and 30’s.

My adult life exploded with big events in 1982, the year that I turned 22. In the timespan of that one year I managed to graduate from college, marry my college sweetheart, start my first professional job as an engineer, buy a new house and a new car, and learn that my wife and I were going to become first-time parents. I remember filling out a survey designed to measure the amount of stress in your life during that eventful year and being surprised when the calculated stress numbers registered so high that they indicated I should be dead!

But all of it was exhilarating to me at that point in my life. I was experiencing new things and accumulating knowledge like a sponge. I knew that my growing family would be counting on me to be a good provider – which gave me the incentive I needed to focus on building a stable career.

I was determined to be successful in my engineering role and threw myself into learning everything I possibly could about the company I worked for as well as the electronic test and measurement equipment that they manufactured.

Many of my co-workers had graduated from more prestigious universities than me and I felt that I had something to prove. I wanted to make a name for myself and grow my reputation and value within the company by making important contributions to the projects to which I was assigned.

I took several continuing education engineering classes at night to improve my knowledge of subject areas that I knew would be helpful to me at work, I sought out brilliant co-workers who could mentor me and give me wise advice on how to approach complex technical projects, and I questioned everything – wondering if there might be a better solution to the problems we were trying to solve.

This drive in my early career to be successful enabled me to do my most innovative and important work for the company during the decades of my 20’s and 30’s. In the span of my first 18 years working for the company, I was awarded two patents, helped develop multiple new test products which generated millions of dollars for the company, created automated software regression tests significantly lowering product development times while improving software quality, and published frequent technical articles for industry conferences and trade journals.

By the time I turned 40, I could point to many important career milestones and had achieved recognition as a top performer and leader within the company. The rewards of my hard work were a comfortable home and financial independence. With this success I began to have feelings of contentment that lessened my drive to take on new projects or solve interesting problems. I became comfortable and happy with life as it was – I no longer felt the need to over-extend myself.

I was satisfied to rest on my past achievements and to take on less tasking roles that would improve the product in evolutionary, rather than revolutionary ways. Over time, I became the wise, experienced, older mentor to younger employees who came to me for advice and direction.

I felt okay with that transition as I considered it my good fortune to be in a situation where I was able to share my knowledge with a new generation of ambitious young people who were ready to make their own marks on the world by inventing novel new solutions that were now beyond me. In some ways, being a part of those collaborative efforts made me feel better than my individual personal accomplishments.

The famous journalist Ed Bradley once interviewed Bob Dylan in 1998 on the television show 60 minutes, at a time when he was approaching 60 years old. During the course of the interview, Bradley asked Bob what the source of inspiration was for his famous early songs, the ones that led to him being recognized as the voice of a generation while he was still only in his 20’s.

Dylan replied that his early songs were almost magically written and that he felt some kind of power, outside of himself, flowing through him while was writing them. When Bradley asked if he could still tap into that penetrating magic now in his songwriting, Dylan paused and said; “No, I don’t know how I got to write those songs“. Bradley followed up and asked if that disappointed him, Dylan replied softly; “Well you can’t do something forever and I did it once… and I can do other things now – but I can’t do that“.

That is a healthy way, I believe, of thinking about what is possible for each of us as we age. My days of endless ambition and innovative thinking are past. But I can do other things now that I couldn’t do then. I can indulge hobbies that interest me, I can find new paths to hike and rivers to fish, I can help care for my mother in her old age and I can share what I have learned through my life experiences and pass it on to my grandchildren and the larger community via this blog.

There will only ever be one Einstein, none of us will ever be as brilliant as him – but if you are under 40, get busy by putting your spry young mind and youthful ambition to work! Maybe you too can come up with novel ideas and ways of doing things that will help change the world or someone’s life for the better.

And if you are over 40, you can be like Einstein in his older years; contributing in a positive way to his community and sharing his wisdom, experience and good fortune with the next generation. In the end, many of our late in life pursuits that we share with others can end up being more rewarding and meaningful to us than any personal accomplishments we achieve along the way.

The Dirt of Gossip Blows into my Face

Frank Sinatra was my Dad’s favorite singer and one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century, selling more than 150 million records during his long music career. His rise to fame began in the the 1940’s and lasted all the way into the 1990’s, when my Mom and Dad actually got to see him perform live on a concert stage in Worcester, MA.

Nostalgic memories of my Dad cheerfully crooning old Sinatra tunes led me to a Netflix documentary called Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All; which documents Frank’s 60 year career from its humble beginnings to his life as a music giant, touching on all the personal battles he struggled with along the way.

Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken New Jersey in 1915, the only child of Italian immigrants. His energetic and driven mother and his illiterate father were the proprietors of a tavern in Hoboken. Frank spent much of his time there after school working on his homework and singing along to the tunes on the bar’s player piano for spare change. He developed an interest in music at a young age, particularly big band jazz, and was especially influenced by the intimate easy listening vocal style of Bing Crosby.

Sinatra got his break fronting popular bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey and found success as a solo artist in 1941 when he began topping the male singer polls. His appeal to the teenage girls of that time revealed a whole new audience for popular music – which had been recorded mainly for adults up to that time. His popularity became officially known as “Sinatramania” and his bright blue eyes earned him the nickname “Ol’ Blue Eyes“.

Frank never learned how to read music, but he worked very hard to improve his singing abilities by working regularly with a vocal coach. He became known as a perfectionist, renowned for his dress sense and performing presence and insisting on recording all his songs in front of a live band.

Sinatra led a colorful personal life. He was often involved in turbulent affairs with women, had connections to Mafia bosses, and had several violent and well publicized confrontations with journalists and work bosses he felt had crossed him.

Despite the negative publicity, everyone recognized the important contributions Frank Sinatra made to society through his music. He was honored with America’s highest awards and was named by music critic Robert Christgau as “the greatest singer of the 20th century“. He died in 1998 but he remains to this day an iconic and popular figure.

In 1995 a birthday tribute, Sinatra: 80 Years My Way, was broadcast from Los Angeles featuring a star-studded cast of performers singing songs meant to honor the “Chairman of the Board“. I was surprised to learn that Bob Dylan, my favorite artist, was among the cast of performers who appeared on stage that night.

On the surface, it seems like Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan would be unlikely to have much in common. After all, they come from different generations and practiced totally different musical styles. Frank worked with a big band using his smooth velvet voice to interpret other people’s songs; while Dylan wrote and sung his own material employing his unique rough and weathered blues voice.

But the two artists had great respect for one another and if you dig deep into the life and careers of the two men it is not hard to understand why:

• Both men came from humble beginnings; Frank the son of blue collar workers and Tavern owners in Hoboken NJ and Bob the son of a Hibbing MN Appliance Store owner.
• Both were self-made men who dropped out of school to pursue their musical interests. Frank would sing for free on NY Radio stations and found jobs singing for cigarettes or his supper. Bob hitchhiked across the country singing at Folk Clubs and coffee shops for tips and crashing on friend’s couches in New York’s Greenwich Village.
• Both men had to learn how to cope with the fame and attention that comes with achieving sudden fame and popularity. Sinatra had to travel with bodyguards while Dylan learned to disguise himself in public and hide his family away from the hordes of fans who would show up at his doorstep at all hours of the day and night to ask him his opinions about politics and the meaning of life.
• Both men had a small circle of loyal friends who they trusted, both lived through a series of romantic relationships, and both were known to be moody for wanting to protect their privacy and do things their way.
• Both men spoke out against injustice. Frank publicly championed the rights of all people, regardless of race and set an example by the diverse group of people he associated with in his personal life. Bob wrote the great Civil Rights anthems of the 1960’s that encouraged passing of the landmark 1960’s Civil Rights laws.
• Both men managed to have successful musical careers for more than 60 years. One was simply referred to as “The Voice“; while the other was burdened by the press with the title of the “Voice of his Generation“.
• Both men were primarily responsible for what is known as “The Great American Songbook“. Frank’s iconic singing of the work of the great songwriters from the 1940 and 50’s led to the first Great American Songbook; while Bob Dylan’s original and poetic songs became classics and the key components of America’s second Great American Songbook.
• Both men were honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards. Both men were included in Time Magazine’s list of the 20th century’s 100 Most Influential People.

Even though the two men were not close, it is not surprising that they would each have admiration and respect for one another – simply because of the similarities between their life experiences. Dylan once told an amusing story about the first time he met Frank which indicates the two men knew they were made of stuff that was a cut above everyone else.

“We were standing on his patio at night when he took me aside and said, ‘You and me, pal, we got blue eyes, we’re from up there,’ and he pointed to the stars. ‘These other bums are from down here.’ I remember thinking that he might be right.”

Bob Dylan relating what Frank Sinatra said to him at their first meeting

While browsing Youtube, I was happy to stumble across this [video clip] of Bob Dylan singing his song “Restless Farewell” to Frank at his 1995 80th birthday television tribute. The lyrics for this poignant song are reprinted below:

Restless Farewell by Bob Dylan

Oh, all the money that in my whole life I did spend
Be it mine right or wrongfully
I let it slip gladly to my friends
To tie up the time most forcefully
But the bottles are done
We've killed each one
And the table's full and overflowed
And the corner sign says it's closing time
So I'll bid farewell and be down the road

Oh, ev'ry girl that ever I've touched
I did not do it harmfully
And ev'ry girl that ever I've hurt
I did not do it knowin'ly
But to remain as friends you need the time
To make amends and stay behind
And since my feet are now fast
And point away from the past
I'll bid farewell and be down the line

Oh, ev'ry foe that ever I faced
The cause was there before we came
And ev'ry cause that ever I fought
I fought it full without regret or shame
But the dark does die
As the curtain is drawn and somebody's eyes 
Must meet the dawn 
And if I see the day, I'd only have to stay
So I'll bid farewell in the night and be gone

Oh, ev'ry thought that's strung a knot in my mind
I might go insane if it couldn't be sprung
But it's not to stand naked under unknowin' eyes
It's for myself and my friends my stories are sung
But the time ain't tall
Yet on time you depend and no word is possessed by no special friend
And though the line is cut, it ain't quite the end
I'll just bid farewell till we meet again

Oh, a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract and bother me
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face
And the dust of rumors covers me
But if the arrow is straight
And the point is slick
It can pierce through dust no matter how thick
So I'll make my stand and remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn

I can’t help thinking that Bob chose to sing this particular song as a farewell because it beautifully captures the independent spirit and steadfast nature of both Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan; two men who walked in the same shoes, trying to live life to the fullest and navigating the journey on their own terms.

I believe the song captures the essence of both men. Both men lived life generously, sharing their fortune with friends, family and worthy causes. Both men loved greatly and regret past hurts to companions that can’t be undone. Both men picked up the torch to fight battles to overcome injustice, battles that must now be picked up by others. Finally, both men remained true to themselves, refusing to be swayed by public opinion or what impact their actions would have on their popularity.

The last verse is especially striking to me. As Frank Sinatra is nearing the end of his life, does he feel bewildered and bothered by a false clock that is trying to tick out his time? Does he remember all the “dirt of gossip” that blew into his face through the years or think about the “dust of rumors” that seemed to always cover him? If he does, Bob advises Frank not to give a damn about it because Frank was always a straight arrow with a sharp point and “if the arrow is straight and the point is slick it can pierce through dust no matter how thick“.

Maybe the reason both men were able to bust through the dust and dirt that swirled around their life is because when they got up to sing they had a way of capturing the universal emotions of the human spirit in a way that always felt true.

Frank expressed this exact sentiment directly when he was asked about all the gossip and innuendo that always seemed to surround him. He said; “Whatever else has been said about me personally is unimportant. When I sing, I believe I’m honest.“

So, here’s to those two restless spirits, Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan; may they live forever through their music and may their music continue to remind all of us “other bums” to bravely pursue our lives with authenticity and honesty.

“You’re nobody if you don’t get booed sometime”

Bob Dylan has made a career out of confounding expectations and doing the unexpected. He became popular in the early 60’s as a solitary Folk musician, writing the era’s most important folk and protest songs; but at the Newport Folk festival in 1965 Dylan started using electrified instruments and singing loud rock and roll music – much to the shock and disappointment of his purist folk fans.

In the late 60’s, at the height of the psychedelic rock movement, Dylan went to Nashville and released a couple of down home simple country albums unlike anything he had ever recorded – which greatly puzzled the legion of his folk-rock followers.

In the 70’s Dylan, who was born and raised in the Jewish faith, became a born-again Christian and released three powerful albums of Christian music that were not well received by his Jewish friends or his non-religious fan base.

During the first Gulf war at a time when the popularity of the war was at its patriotic height, Bob Dylan went on the Grammy awards and sang his most biting anti-war protest song “Masters of War”. The audience sat silently while Dylan sang about the corrosive effects of America’s military-industrial complex.

Dylan lost a lot of his supporters during these career transitions as people abandoned and disparaged him because he did not live up to the image and expectations that they had created for him. But that didn’t bother Bob, as long as he was being authentic to his art. An interviewer once asked him how it felt to be booed by the audience while he was performing – Dylan replied “Miles Davis has been booed. Hank Williams was booed. Stravinsky was booed. You’re nobody if you don’t get booed sometime.”

Bob Dylan’s goal was not to be popular or famous; in fact he shied away from those things. He was bothered and annoyed with the fame that came from the acclaim he received as a musician. So troubled by it was he that he deliberately made bad music at times and played up the stereotype of an out-of-touch drug addicted musician just so people would leave him and his family alone and stop expecting him to have the answers to all of their life’s questions.

I think we all can learn an important lesson about Bob’s approach to life. It is human nature to want to be liked; but sometimes in our desire to be popular we are pressured to do things that don’t feel right. It is at those times that we need to have the courage to think for our-self and to do what we feel is right  – regardless of what other people think or whether it will be popular or not.

I have taken unpopular positions at times in my life that I do not regret even though they came with some unpleasant consequences. These include:

• Standing up for a Jewish friend who was being bullied at high school – and as a result becoming an outcast with some of the school’s more popular students.
• Insisting that my college fraternity participate in charitable activities and scheduling certain fraternity bonding events where alcohol and girls were not permitted.
• Refusing to go out for lunch with co-workers during the Lenten season to avoid breaking my spiritual promise to Fast.
• Turning down a promotion at work because it would have involved extensive traveling, possible relocation of my family and more time away from my wife and young daughters.
• Actively participating in prison ministry programs that help the incarcerated – even though many friends and family did not feel that these prisoners deserved to be helped.

In all those situations I did what I felt was best and I believe those decisions helped to shape me and give my life a positive direction. For those of you out there who are also willing to hear the boos for doing what you believe is right – I applaud you.

“I value my religion, because like a batting average, it sets a standard by which I can measure myself”

When most people think of Babe Ruth they picture a man with a larger-than-life reputation – a great baseball player with a reckless appetite for drinking and womanizing. While that reputation is well-deserved it does not accurately portray the complexities of the man and his lifelong struggles to live up to his Christian ideals.

Babe Ruth Portrait – 1920

Ruth was a born into a rough section of Baltimore in 1895; his mother died when he was a twelve and his father, who operated a saloon, didn’t have much time for the son who quickly became a tobacco-chewing, beer-drinking, swearing delinquent. Too much for his father to handle, Ruth was sent to the St Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory and orphanage that was run by the Xaverian Christian Brothers.

It was there that Ruth received his formal education and learned the basics of the carpentry and shirt-making trades. The school’s Prefect of Discipline, Brother Matthias, who was greatly respected by the boys for his strength and fairness, tutored Ruth on the mechanics of throwing and hitting a baseball.

Ruth still got into trouble often while at the school, but he benefited from the strict discipline and moral teachings of the Catholic tradition as he remarked in later years that the biggest life lesson he took away from his time at the school was that “God was Boss“.

Ruth went on to have a legendary career and is regarded by many as the greatest baseball player of all time, setting numerous records that stood for many years. During the height of his fame, Ruth was treated as a hero and he used his money and fame to live a life of excess food, drink, and women.

He admitted to straying often during his life, but he was grateful for the religious tradition he learned as a boy which he felt always brought him back to the right path. He would attend Sunday Mass after being out carousing all night; he was an active member of the Knights of Columbus; he would visit schools, orphanages, and hospitals throughout his life; he would donate generously at fundraisers; he refused to divorce his wife and looked after her even when they were separated; and he often returned to St Mary’s to help the school and Brother Matthias.

There are some important principles that I find admirable about the way Babe Ruth approached life that can be instructive for us as we try to be our best – one day at a time.

1. Ruth never abandoned his Catholic faith and throughout his life he used the foundation of his faith as the “standard” by which he measured himself. Although he was idolized as a baseball god, he never forgot that God was the true boss. Likewise, I think that we all need a standard by which to measure ourselves. Those of us who have been raised within a religious tradition should be grateful for the moral virtues instilled in us that help direct our path and protect us from becoming selfish, self-absorbed people.
2. Ruth was not a perfect man. His faults were many – but he was not blind to them because of the moral standards that were ingrained in him. Like Ruth I think it is healthy for us to make an honest inventory of our own faults and weaknesses and acknowledge them so that we can work on correcting them.
3. Great baseball players in general, and Babe Ruth in particular, do not let past failures prevent future success. Even the greatest baseball players fail 2 out of every 3 times they step into the batter box. Elite batters have the gift of forgetting the last unsuccessful at-bat because they know that dwelling on it will rob them of the full mental concentration they need to make the most of their present opportunity. That is a lesson for all of us to be easy on ourselves during those times that we fail. Dwelling on past failures can perpetuate self-defeating behaviors and prevent us from living fully in the moment. It is good to desire perfection, but we should keep in mind that Christian tradition teaches us that God forgives us when we fail and that many of the greatest Biblical characters were reformed sinners.
4. Who knows what would have become of Babe Ruth if Brother Matthias had never taken the time to instruct him on the art of playing baseball. Small acts we do can have great consequences, both good and bad, in the lives of those we interact with each day. Ruth never forgot Brother Mathias for all that he did for him and he went out of his way throughout his life to be a positive role model to all the kids he encountered. We can each make a difference in someone’s life who is more unfortunate than us. We would do well to ask ourselves often ‘Who are you feeding with your life today?’.

So, a tip of my cap to the Babe for all the life lessons. I wish you had remained with the Red Sox throughout your career, but I am not going to dwell on that past failure…