The Greats

I signed up to take a class this semester from one of the greatest theorists in international politics. Naturally, because he holds this title, everyone else wanted to take his class and so promptly at 2pm yesterday 40 of us crowded into a tiny little lecture hall expecting to be hear a super-human lecture by the super-human man.

Even I, who have been stared down by Muhammed Ali for saying he was no big deal, was expecting a large man that resembled his largely publicized name. I was not expecting, the little old man who sat at the head of the table. I was, however, expecting the buzz in the air and the excited looks on people's faces as they looked around at one another as if to say "I can't believe we're sitting in the same room with this super-human man!" I smiled because to me, it's not about the name, it's about what that little old man has to teach me.

As we sat listening to his lecture, the looks in the room slowly started to change. The looks weren't excited anymore as the reality began to set in: this is just another professor giving just another lecture. I, on the other hand, got more excited as the lecture went on because this man was really living up to his name of genius. He was humble, simple, but profound - everything I adore about a good professor. And then the questions started. Who's theory is this? Why did people think that? And the room was silent.

He continued lecturing on what a theory is. And then came the next statement that wasn't really a question but yet it was. He couldn't remember the second Stephen...the first one was Stephen Weinberg and the second..."Hawkins" I knew it was Hawkins and I said so. One great man trying to remember two other great names. I not only knew both names, I had also heard both of them speak. Long ago, in a subject very far away, I had sat in a room and listened to two other great names speak. And here was the connection. The validation that what I had done all those years ago is still going to take me places in a different subject now.