Journal

two days after first quarter
may 21, 2002 ~ 2:34 p.m.

You know it's odd that this is upsetting me so much. It's not like he was a really important figure in my life, and what little influence he could have is still accessible through his books. But I'm still really sad.

In case you haven't heard, Stephen Jay Gould died yesterday. In case you have no clue who he is, he's a brilliant paleontologist and Harvard professor who has written numerous books, articles, and essays on various evolution-related topics, as well as other academically interesting subjects such as the millennium. He was also the co-theorist (along with Niles Eldredge) of the Punctuated Equilibrium theory, which has had a pretty big impact on evolutionary biology in the last few decades. And if you didn't know any of that, you probably remember him from a Simpsons episode a few years ago, "Lisa the Skeptic," where he plays himself and is asked to test an "angel" skeleton.

Actually I have to admit that I've only completed two of his books in their entirety, but I've read bits and pieces of others and have planned on completing them someday (along with every other book in the universe...). But his writing has still enormously influenced my understanding of evolution and biology, and even time and calendars and the human mind.

What really is bothering me, though, is that I never got the chance to meet him. I missed it four or so years ago when he was touring for Questioning the Millennium and visited my local bookstore. I don't even remember why but I couldn't go and got my mother to have him sign the book for me. And then ten days ago, he visited the store again, to talk about his latest book, and I was stuck here in Wisconsin, kicking myself for missing him again. My mother went again, and said that he was acting very out of it. Not surprising considering he would be gone within two weeks. I had figured that I'd get to see him the next time around, the next book tour. So now I'm really mad because I never will.

I'm so glad now that I read Full House last year, because that book uses his cancer as an example of misleading statistics. When he was diagnosed in 1982, he found out that the median lifespan for his cancer is 8 months. And he proceeded to live for another 20 years. I suppose that's not as long as he was hoping to live, but he still got a lot out of life, and was working right up to end.

If you haven't already, read one of his books. They're fantastic.

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