Yazı 2019 yılından. ‘Yetmiş yıl önce yetmiş yaşındayken’ Einstein’in yazdığı bir mektuptan
alınan satırlarla başlıyor. Optik yanılsama sorunumuzu anlatıyor. Bana çok çarpıcı geldi.
“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and
space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the
rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us,
restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our
task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to
embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve
this completely, but striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a
foundation for inner security.”
Some of you may recognize the above passage as a quote from Albert Einstein in a letter he
wrote in 1950 to an ordained rabbi, Norman Salit, who was seeking in vain to comfort his 19-
year-old daughter over the death of her 16-year-old sister. In addition to his lifetime attempt
to unify into a single, comprehensive theory the laws governing gravity and
electromagnetism, his voluminous correspondences reflect a deep conviction that such a
unity must exist throughout nature.
Although it was written nearly 70 years ago when Einstein was 70, the “optical delusion” that
we are each separate individuals without unity to all humankind and to our environment
seems as apropos today as ever before. At a time when the world appears to be continually
shrinking through advances in travel, communication and shared technology, there seems
to be a paradoxical increase toward division and isolationism in areas of politics,
nationalism, ideologies, race, religion and lifestyles, as well as a lack of consensus on
protecting the world in which we live and all its creatures.
Having reached the status of “seniors,” you and I have witnessed repeatedly the tragedy of
the optical delusion, when individuals, various groups and even nations place their personal
welfare and interests above that of the larger, global society. The result can be anything
from estrangement within families to a threat to world peace and even to the existence of
our world. And yet the solution has always been right in front of us: to free ourselves, as
Einstein suggests, from the prison of this delusion by recognizing that we are not islands, but
that we all share a common bond with each other and with this planet we call home.
Like many of you, I have enjoyed the opportunity that retirement provides to travel in
various parts of the world and to do so in a more leisurely manner than during the
professional years, with more time to talk with people and to reflect. One of the things that has impressed me most during these sojourns is that the vast majority of people in other
parts of the world, even though they may not agree with our government’s international
policies, seem to like Americans as individuals and, like ourselves, yearn simply for peace
and unity with each other and with our shared environment. And that is reason for hope.
So what can we as seniors do to help free future generations from Einstein’s optical delusion
and its undesired consequences?
I suppose we can begin by sharing the lessons of our lifetime of experience: of the pain that
we have seen individuals, groups and nations suffer when we see ourselves as isolated from
the world community and insist on always putting our personal interests before the
common good. But one thing we have learned as parents and teachers is that younger
generations pay far more attention to what we do than what we say. In whatever time we
have left, maybe we can spend it trying to see ourselves as part of the whole, being less
judgmental of those with whom we have differing views, more willing to work together for
common goals at home and abroad and more sensitive to the delicate needs of all creatures
and of this planet we all share.
https://www.aao.org/senior-ophthalmologists/scope/article/editorial-optical-delusion
