I must confess I have not known much about the life of Stephen Hawking despite the fact he is one of the most celebrated scientists (or cosmologist) of our times. I am not a theoretical physics major so I would apologize if I may seem trivial at times and at times would seem like focusing on everything but physics as I write this post. Recently, I had the privilege of watching the movie “Theory of everything” – based on the life of Stephen Hawking and it got me thinking on the aspects of life touched in various measures during the narrative. It is amazing how a movie based solely on the life of an atheist could get you thinking about God, but it did. At times I had tears in my eyes as I could see the work of a power much superior than I working along with Prof. Hawking even as he continued to not recognize its existence. You could call it his destiny, I could call it God and we would both be right in equal measure. I would like to highlight some obvious and some subtle messages I received from the film apart from the mind boggling achievements of Prof Hawking.
Life is struggle and it ends at death: Most of us feel it, some of us might not feel it so obviously, but life is synonymous with struggle. Every day in different way we face new problems which we overcome and experience success. Some of these problems get the better of us but in a way teach us lessons and prepare us for the problems arriving in future. So long as we live, we will encounter problems and hence it serves us right to learn ways to face them rather than turn our backs to them. The harder the problem, the sweeter is the victory over it and by that measure Prof. Hawking life is a grand testimony to fighting and winning!
Behind a successful man is a beautiful and loving woman: This adage has been beaten to death often times referring to how the wife picks up the slack at home and takes care of the kids while the man is outside chasing his dreams. This is special, but in case of Prof Hawking, his wife Jane quite literally is the captain steering the ship of his dreams. Every single time it seemed like he was giving up on life and accepting his fate given his medical condition, she was there cheering him up and pushing him to fight harder and win grander. When Prof Hawking meets an accident and is on life support and the doctors have all but given up and are encouraging her to sign the DNR, she firmly stands with him citing “his work is incomplete”. One wonders if Prof Hawking would achieve all that he did despite his medical condition without the love and support of his lovely wife Jane. Maybe it was her love that kept a man alive for 40 years; to whom doctors gave just 2 years to live.
Any medical condition is surmountable: Every person alive has some or the other medical condition. Some of us may have severe allergies; others have sinus problems and relentless colds. In case of Prof Hawking it was ALS – a motor neuron disease which degenerates the muscles slowly – severely limiting all voluntary activities. The message is best put across when Dr. Hawking says “No matter how bad the situation is there is always something you could do and be good at. So long there is life, there is hope”. If we learn to take things in our stride and continue to live life and pursue our dreams, even insurmountable problems seem petty.
Everyone deserves happiness: The character of Jane the lovely wife of Dr. Hawking brings out different shades of her personality and makes a larger point to a society that often spends time evaluating the mistakes made by others instead of understanding that each of us live under different circumstances so there cannot be a common measure of good / bad in this world. The movie depicts Jane as a strong woman who at no point gives up on her husband despite his advanced stage ALS. There are several instances when Dr. Hawking seems to have given up and Jane stands by him and nudges him to continue on his path of research. There is also an instance when she is overwhelmed by the amount of work which involves taking care of 3 children and a husband and seeks an outlet by joining the church choir and getting romantically involved with a widower she meets there. I found this person intriguing who had her priorities sorted and never gave up on her husband for the sake of her lover. In fact, when the time came to choose between the two, she picked her husband. It tells us that people all around us are dealing with their problems in their own unique way and should we as a society be unable to help, we should not get in the way of their happiness by drawing boundaries of good/bad and judge them.
In closing, a big salute to Dr. Hawking for leading a wonderful life and achieving all that he has achieved and to Jane for standing by him all the time.
So long..
Life is struggle and it ends at death: Most of us feel it, some of us might not feel it so obviously, but life is synonymous with struggle. Every day in different way we face new problems which we overcome and experience success. Some of these problems get the better of us but in a way teach us lessons and prepare us for the problems arriving in future. So long as we live, we will encounter problems and hence it serves us right to learn ways to face them rather than turn our backs to them. The harder the problem, the sweeter is the victory over it and by that measure Prof. Hawking life is a grand testimony to fighting and winning!
Behind a successful man is a beautiful and loving woman: This adage has been beaten to death often times referring to how the wife picks up the slack at home and takes care of the kids while the man is outside chasing his dreams. This is special, but in case of Prof Hawking, his wife Jane quite literally is the captain steering the ship of his dreams. Every single time it seemed like he was giving up on life and accepting his fate given his medical condition, she was there cheering him up and pushing him to fight harder and win grander. When Prof Hawking meets an accident and is on life support and the doctors have all but given up and are encouraging her to sign the DNR, she firmly stands with him citing “his work is incomplete”. One wonders if Prof Hawking would achieve all that he did despite his medical condition without the love and support of his lovely wife Jane. Maybe it was her love that kept a man alive for 40 years; to whom doctors gave just 2 years to live.
Any medical condition is surmountable: Every person alive has some or the other medical condition. Some of us may have severe allergies; others have sinus problems and relentless colds. In case of Prof Hawking it was ALS – a motor neuron disease which degenerates the muscles slowly – severely limiting all voluntary activities. The message is best put across when Dr. Hawking says “No matter how bad the situation is there is always something you could do and be good at. So long there is life, there is hope”. If we learn to take things in our stride and continue to live life and pursue our dreams, even insurmountable problems seem petty.
Everyone deserves happiness: The character of Jane the lovely wife of Dr. Hawking brings out different shades of her personality and makes a larger point to a society that often spends time evaluating the mistakes made by others instead of understanding that each of us live under different circumstances so there cannot be a common measure of good / bad in this world. The movie depicts Jane as a strong woman who at no point gives up on her husband despite his advanced stage ALS. There are several instances when Dr. Hawking seems to have given up and Jane stands by him and nudges him to continue on his path of research. There is also an instance when she is overwhelmed by the amount of work which involves taking care of 3 children and a husband and seeks an outlet by joining the church choir and getting romantically involved with a widower she meets there. I found this person intriguing who had her priorities sorted and never gave up on her husband for the sake of her lover. In fact, when the time came to choose between the two, she picked her husband. It tells us that people all around us are dealing with their problems in their own unique way and should we as a society be unable to help, we should not get in the way of their happiness by drawing boundaries of good/bad and judge them.
In closing, a big salute to Dr. Hawking for leading a wonderful life and achieving all that he has achieved and to Jane for standing by him all the time.
So long..
