It’s been a while, but I wanted to write about some significant events that happened recently.
My boss, Ed Stone, was recently awarded the Shaw Prize in Astronomy. I had never heard about the Shaw Prize until Ed won it, but it has only been in existence since 2004, while the more well-known Nobel Prize has been in existence since 1895. However, the Shaw Prize is considered supremely important and is seen as the “Nobel of the East”. Many Shaw awardees are also Nobel Laureates.
Oh, and the Shaw Prize comes with more money than the Nobel.
Ed won the Shaw Prize "for his leadership in the Voyager project, which has, over the past four decades, transformed our understanding of the four giant planets and the outer solar system, and has now begun to explore interstellar space.” The prize is well-deserved, to say the least.
We held a celebration today in his honor at the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astophysics, where I work. There was a lot of cheese, fruit, crackers, hummus, etc., plus sodas, wine, and champagne. Brief speeches were given in tribute, and Ed spent a lot of time speaking to and being congratulated by young students and others who were probably born after Voyager was first launched. The gathering was hosted by Professor George Djorgovski, who started out as a young assistant professor when Ed was already fully-tenured, and Professor Fiona Harrison, who is the division chair and who started at Caltech when I was still a grad student.
Also in attendance were Kip Thorne — who shared the Shaw Prize in 2016 with Ron Drever and Rainer Weiss for LIGO and later shared the Nobel Prize in 2017 for LIGO with Rainer Weiss and Barry Barish (who shared it because Ron Drever had passed away) — and Peter Goldreich — who won the Shaw Prize in 2007 for achievements in theoretical astrophysics and planetary sciences.
Peter Goldreich, Ed Stone, and Kip Thorne.
Both Kip and Peter were there to congratulate Ed. While I and my Space Radiation Laboratory colleagues sat, chatted, and enjoyed the food, I noticed Rick Cook leaning to the side and trying to take a photo of the crowd with his smartphone. He said he was trying to get all three Shaw Prize winners in one photo, but when I looked at the crowd, I told him that he’d get Kip’s back, Peter’s side, and the back of Ed’s head. I suggested it would be better if we could just gather all three Shaw Prize winners together for a group photo, so I found George and made the suggestion, which he thought was a good idea. When the three got together, almost a dozen people (probably more) took their photos.
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This is probably about as close as I’ll get to the Nobel Prize or the Shaw Prize, but there’s another award — which I’ll also never get — but which may be as personally significant to me.
About three times a year, our Boy Scout Troop holds a Court of Honor to celebrate all the rank advancements since the previous Court of Honor, and special recognition goes to those who attain Eagle Scout. While all other ranks are recognized in groups, Eagle Scouts are recognized individually, one at a time during the ceremony. As an Eagle Scout and his family walk slowly toward the stage, the scoutmaster announces him and reads all of his accomplishments. He also reads special thanks from the Eagle Scout to those who have helped him in his scouting career, usually all the scoutmasters who have led our troop during his career.
A few years ago, TH, one of the scouts I had taught during the Ad Altare Dei Catholic Religious Emblem course, included my name among the scoutmasters as someone he personally thanked. It was a first time I had heard a non-scoutmaster publicly thanked, and I was deeply touched.
A couple of weeks ago, we held another Court of Honor, and two scouts — NC and BK — were recognized for having attained Eagle rank. Their achievement was special for me because both are W’s age, and both joined the Troop and W’s Patrol the year after W joined scouting. They had been in another troop that was very inactive, so they switched a year later to our troop in order to get more scouting experience. They’ve stayed with W’s patrol throughout, and when our previous patrol Assistant Scoutmasters drifted away from scouting, I became their acting Assistant Scoutmaster (and W’s). So, NC and BK were “my guys”. (In J’s patrol, I’m officially an Assistant Scoutmaster, although we don’t really enforce strict boundaries between patrols, as far as ASM’s mentoring scouts is concerned. That is, I’ve mentored W’s, BK’s, and NC’s patrol throughout the years, of course, and I’ve mentored and counselled scouts from other patrols for various topics, merit badges, etc.)
I remember the times NC was given the task of leading hikes, when he was a senior scout. I’m often the “sweep” — the adult at the end of the line whose responsibility it is to stay with the slower scouts and adults and make sure nobody gets left behind. I’m usually a slower adult, too, but I find that if I’m at the lead, I can keep a fair pace. Something about being at the end makes it harder for me.
Anyway, I’ve always been irritated by those older, more athletic scouts who, when leading a hike, leave the younger, weaker scouts far behind. I think that’s poor leadership. Therefore, whenever NC and/or W lead hikes, I always make sure to remind them to keep the back of the line within sight, so we’re all together. NC has always been particular solicitous of my advice on hikes, taking my guidance seriously. I know he’s a very conscientious leader. He served as the Troop’s Senior Patrol Leader, and he is very well-liked and admired.
BK served as Senior Patrol Leader as well, during the term before NC, and I went on many a campout not only with W but also with BK and his dad. What I remember most about BK’s scouting career was when he went on his first trip to Camp Cherry Valley during the summer of 2014. His mother — a very emotional, doting mom — was very worried about her “baby” being away from home for a whole week, and I was later told that BK was also worried for months about being away from home and parents for the first time. Since W had already been there the previous summer, I knew that the boys would have a great time, and I reassured her that BK would be fine and that he would come off the boat at the end of the week transformed. I told her that watching the scouts return and disembark the boat was like watching young soldiers returning victorious from war. She took my reassurance to heart at the departure that Sunday, but it wasn’t until the return the following Saturday that she saw BK’s transformation: The moment we saw his face at the boat door, we could see his very wide smile beaming at us, dozens of yards away. The happiness and self-confidence continued to grow throughout the years, and he also grew from a small, kind of pudgy little kid to a very fit, strong young man.
Me (far left) at the conclusion of BK’s (center) Eagle Board of Review.
At the end of each Eagle Board of Review, the scout and the parents are congratulated, photos are taken, hands are shaken, and hugs are exchanged. The Troop Eagle Advisor gives the new Eagle Scout instructions to get his Eagle portrait done at a special studio contracted for the job. Eagle Scouts are given the honor of marching in the Tournament of Roses Parade, so if the scouts are in town at the time, they may do so. Also, the Eagle Scouts are instructed that they are allowed to purchase special Eagle Scout Mentor pins from the local Scout store, to give to those adults who have had a special role in their scouting career. Scoutmasters in our troop have many of them pinned to their lapels.
I sat on NC’s and BK's Eagle Boards of Review and was able to congratulate them personally. In fact, I got the honor of putting their Eagle neckerchiefs and medals on them.
During our recent Court of Honor, NC listed me first and as the only non-Scoutmaster (though an Assistant Scoutmaster) among those adults whom he acknowledged as having had an impact on his scouting career. I was, of course, deeply touched. His mom asked afterward if I had been in attendance; she didn’t see me in the crowd. She wanted me to know I was named by NC.
(This past weekend, J and I went on the Troop’s annual trip to Camp Whitsett, and NC joined us. We had yet another hike which NC led and which I served as sweep, and it was like old times.)
When it came time for BK to enter with his family at Court of Honor, his announced thanks were kept to the Scoutmasters, but after the ceremony, he gave me an Eagle Scout Mentor pin and a framed thank-you certificate that read “A good scout master can change the troop. A great scout master can change a life.” (Assistant Scoutmaster counts.)
My Eagle Scout Mentor pin from BK, on my pocket flap.
At the Eagle dinner reception for BK, to which we were invited (W and J were away at Order of the Arrow Kihaawk weekend, but Hsuan and I went), a couple of our past Scoutmasters attended, and BK gave a speech thanking everyone. He singled out me for, among other things, “moral support and wisdom” over the years. I was deeply touched yet again. In fact, during the dinner conversation, I told his mom and BK, separately, that I had received several honors and gifts in our Troop for my service, but that Eagle Scout Mentor pin was by far the most meaningful thing I’ve received in scouting.
The attribution of “wisdom” to me struck me as unusual, though I was, of course, very moved by BK’s tribute. In 1991, in reference to his last Foundation series novel, Forward the Foundation, Isaac Asimov said “Today I enjoy the gift given to me by time: Experience (some might call it wisdom, but I will refrain from such bald self-aggrandizement).”
Bald self-aggrandizement, indeed. Throughout my life, I’ve observed that those who frequently claim for themselves the virtue of “wisdom” seldom demonstrate such virtue in action. Therefore, I’ve always refrained from claiming “wisdom” for myself, so I don’t wave that kind of unsubstantiated arrogance in someone else’s face. Instead, the claim of “wisdom” should be awarded by others. However, the old never attribute “wisdom” to the young, which is the same kind of arrogance with which the young often dismiss the old. Instead, I think the young have the right and the obligation to judge the wisdom of the old; in particular, when the young man grows into an old man, he can look back at the way his elders behaved many years earlier and decide for himself whether his then-elders really were wise. The young’s judgment may not — during youth — be qualified and certain, but over time, the aging young may be obliged to decide that their elders were once old fools. Or not. But over time, it’s the aging young who matter. It’s why I teach my sons not only as they are now but also knowing that they will one day be older men who will — must — in the future cast judgment on me as I am now, so that they can be better men, husbands, and fathers.
So, again, BK attributed “wisdom” to me. I appreciated his sentiment. However, in light of the previous paragraph, I wonder if the wording came from his parents. Over the years, I spoke to both of them at least as much as I spoke to BK, reassuring them (e.g. his mom during his first Camp Cherry Valley trip) and otherwise just talking with his dad during campouts.
They’ve all been good friends, scouts as well as parents, so I do hope I have merited their consideration.