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6 HACKLEY REVIEW COMMENCEMENT SUPPLEMENT 2017 Senior Dinner Address My Wish: Shine Light into the Dark Places Bill McLay Visit our online gallery to view and download more photos The Class of 2017 chose physics teacher Bill McLay to receive the Anton and Lydia Rice Inspirational Teaching Award. Each year, the Rice Award winner delivers the Senior Dinner address. After thanking the team behind the Senior Dinner, and the members of the Class of 2017 for the ways in which knowing them has enriched his life, he offered these remarks: Bill McLay Having sat where all of you are and listened to these speeches over the years, I am often fascinated by the different tacks those who have delivered them have taken. I have found that they often reflect something about the speaker’s personality. Knowing my personality, I am sure that now frightens more than a few of you. Of course, I know what many of your parents may be thinking, “Really, you all had to pick the physics teacher? This is my worst nightmare; there is no way I'm going to understand any of this. Maybe if I just stare intently, nod my head every once in a while, it will totally look like I get it.” Some of you parents, however, may already know me because I taught one of your children. Now those of you out there may be thinking, “Great, it’s my kid’s physics teacher, this is my worst nightmare, what if he recognizes me. Maybe if I just stare intently and nod my head I can convince my child I understood what he said.” Well, let me help all of you ease this level of panic right away. I have a favorite quote I give my physics students at the beginning of each year. It is from the renowned physicist and teacher, and my personal hero, Richard Feynman. For those who have never heard of him, he was a brilliant physicist who, among other things, worked on the Manhattan Project, the first atomic bomb. Back then, he was known for playing pranks on people at Los Alamos, especially the security officers, but he also liked to show up at local high schools and just ask if he could teach a science class for the day. Anyway, in his book on Quantum Electrodynamics, (a book I am sure you have all read), he says, “Everyone comes to a science lecture knowing they will not understand it, but perhaps the speaker will be wearing a nice tie to stare at.” That is how I start each year with my students. With that in mind, I have picked my most glaring Mickey Mouse tie for anyone who feels they need something to stare intently at. And yet, perhaps tonight, you may not need my tie. You see, I thought I would do something more than talk science or throw some random advice at all of you. I wanted to do something much bigger. I hope to
SENIOR DINNER 7 accomplish two things tonight, send you off with “My Wish,” and let you all in on the meaning of life. Now we have all probably heard or read many views on what people consider to be the meaning of life. Some say it is to find what you love to do and then make it your life’s work. Others say it is to contribute something to society. Douglas Adams claims in his book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that it is simply the number 42. There are countless books and even a few movies on the subject. (I don’t recommend going to the movie Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life for any real answers, though.) However, many of us spend hours trying to understand just that, the meaning of life. The best explanation for the meaning of life I ever heard came from the words of Dr. Alexander Papaderos, as told by Robert Fulgham in his book, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It. Your parents may also know Fulgham from his more famous book, All I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten. If they have never shown you that book, it is probably because they don’t want you to think that all the hard work you did at Hackley was a waste of time, and you were really done after kindergarten. Anyway, Dr. Papaderos was a professor of theology who lived in Greece during and after World War II. One year, Fulgham decided to attend Papaderos’ two-week seminar on Greek culture. The story then basically goes like this: On the last day of the seminar, Dr. Papaderos asked if anyone had any questions. At first no one spoke up. Then someone raise a hand and asked, “What is the meaning of life?” Now just a quick aside, as a teacher myself, I always ask at the end of every class if there are any questions. It is just naturally built into every teacher to do so. At times, we teachers will get some goofy question to which everyone will laugh, class will then end, and everyone will leave. For example, I was once asked at the end of a lecture on planetary motion, “Mr. McLay, if everyone in China all jumped up and down at the same time, would it cause a tidal wave that would flood the west coast of the United States?” (Yes, that was an actual question from a student of mine.) So, when this student asked Dr. Papaderos, “What is the meaning of life?” everyone naturally started to laugh and then proceeded to get up to leave. However, Dr. Papaderos raised his hand to indicate that everyone should stay seated, and then proceeded to give his answer. He began by telling a story about, as a child, finding pieces of a broken mirror from a wrecked motorcycle. What he quickly discovered was that he could use this mirror to reflect the light of the sun anywhere he wanted. What fascinated him the most was that by doing this, he could use this mirror to shine light into dark places. OK, so what does this story have anything to do with My Wish or the meaning of life? Well to start with, let me tell you about light. Light is one of the most unique things in the universe. Nothing travels faster than light, and no object with mass can even travel as fast as light. Light is produced by excited atoms. Our knowledge about the universe itself comes from the observations of light. Most of us only know light as what comes from the sun, or a light bulb. We also assume that in the darkness, we can’t understand anything, because there is no light. Yet light comes in so many forms. Right now, we are giving off light in the form of infrared. If it were pitch black, we would be giving off this light. Sure, we may not be able to see it, but any pit viper snakes that were around would see it. In X-ray light, a supermassive black hole, billions of times the size of our sun, can be viewed by astronomers. Yes, even the darkest location of the universe, a black hole, is revealed through a kind of light. And with that light comes the knowledge and understanding of how stars form, how galaxies organize, and gives us a glimpse into the future of our own galaxy. So, light is energy and a source of knowledge, but what does it have to do with the meaning of life? Well, no matter what you read or hear told about the meaning of life, what lies within all of these ideas is a fundamental need for truth, knowledge, and understanding. At the heart of science itself is the eternal search for truth, knowledge, and understanding. Scientists are great at explaining how the universe works, but we really don’t know “why” it works. Ultimately, that is our greatest goal, to figure out why everything in the universe works the way it does. But to do all this, we must shine light on everything. That which is left in the dark can never be understood. So, as a teacher of science, I take the other words of
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