Wentworth Earl Miller, Jr. – 50th Reunion Essay

Wentworth Earl Miller, Jr.

519 W. Chestnut Street

Lancaster, PA 17603

wmiller@leews.com

717-826-9099; 412-225-8898

Spouse(s): Divorced

Child(ren): Three

Grandchild(ren): Four

Education: Yale BA ’69, JD ’77

College: Silliman

Hubble’s Lesson

“The great thing about a H, Yale, Oxbridge education is having disdain for things one can’t have.”

–Quote (more or less) of uncertain origin that has stuck with (and amused) me

“The very stone one kicks with one’s boot will outlast Shakespeare.”

–Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Hmm. Respecting the first, I suspect it originated in an era in which the typical HYO graduate hailed from privilege, and certain life basics—family, children, food, shelter, safety—were a given. I wouldn’t want to have done without such basics.

I’ve concluded that a lifetime that spans looking up in wonder at the sight of an airplane up high (something many no longer do), to having the world at one’s touch in a handheld device (attention to the typical banal offering of which I eschew), has been felicitous. Personally (knocking on wood, as I’m superstitious), I’m thankful for peace, reasonable prosperity, and, thus far, avoiding calamity. I call my good fortune “LUCK,” not “blessing.”

I have been passionate about certain things within my control. However, ratiocination, honed and aided by Yale, plus continuing engagement with information and use of mental faculties, has fashioned a cynical shield respecting the (many) things one could (and perhaps should) be passionate about, but that one likely cannot much influence.*

*E.g., recycling [I do it, as my city makes it easy. But I (and you) know it’s bullshit.]; climate change [Happy SE PA is becoming NC. Otherwise, 9/11 instructs that people easily adapt to new norms. (E.g., to nonsense like the entire demeaning, ineffectual charade of security screening to stop a fanatic bent on mayhem.) My grandkids will likely grow up to think (as folk in Arabia and Arizona do today), “Only 102 degrees. Pretty nice day!”]; war and man’s (mostly men!) inhumanity to man, etc.

I am currently under the spell of what the Hubble telescope, which has orbited Earth since 1990, instructs. Namely, not only are we individually insignificant (an awareness unfortunately reinforced every day by said handheld device, constantly in most hands), but Earth, indeed, our entire galaxy (!!) being infinitesimal in an incomprehensible vastness.*

*Note. The question isn’t whether Other Life exists. The most random AI projection/calculation must conclude it must! (And Voyager and Elon Musk’s red Tesla on a rocket are pointing the way to us!)

A 60 Minutes segment featured revelations of Hubble. If missed, imagine a clear night sky. Visible to the naked eye are innumerable light pinpoints—stars, planets. Consider just the three stars comprising Orion’s Belt. Imagine a mere square inch of blackness between one of the stars. (The blackness enabling us to view the stars. Just a square inch among thousands of such black square inches in a not-whole portion of visible night sky.)

To Hubble, orbiting above the atmosphere creating night’s blackness to the naked eye, the single square inch of blackness is but one of countless square-inch windows to the vastness of the Great Beyond. And how vast is, say, just the segment of Great Beyond visible to Hubble through a single square inch? Answer: It exceeds measure or conception.

Over time, Hubble’s mirrors collect images—from bits of light traveling tens of thousands of light years (!!) through the vastness. A single tall, gossamer, cloudlike apparition, far distant in the fragment of Beyond depicted through the single square inch of black, contains infinite light pinpoints. Each not star or planet, but entire galaxy! (Equal to our Milky Way.) Distance top to bottom of merely the cloudlike image is estimated to be—the distance light travels in… Did the narrator say one, ten, a hundred, a thousand years?

No matter. Distance beyond comprehension. Containing thousands of galaxies!

“How many galaxies do you estimate are out there?” asked the 60 Minutes reporter. (In the vastness Hubble sees through the many thousands of square-inch black windows.) “As many galaxies as there are grains of sand on all the beaches of Earth.” (!!!!!!)

In (infrequent?) moments of humility, I’ve thought, “I’m but a grain of sand on a beach (of teeming Earthly humanity).” Whoa! Ultimate hubris! So, so, so-o much less!

Classmates. In our sentience we are Very Important. Yet… Do the simple math. For example, if, indeed, there is a G-o-d, does he/she/it cover all the grains, each a universe?

I’m thinking that if ALL were to grasp the Hubble lesson that our world, so very, very miniscule, is likely but a wonderful, rarified accident; that this one life is IT; that there is not going to be a second act—no Heaven, no Hell, nothing more—, perhaps…

Perhaps we ought to behave better toward one another. Or, perhaps we should ruthlessly grab and exploit to the best of our abilities??

Meantime, at six, the Steelers still have more rings than Patriots or Cowboys! And Ben (likely #MeToo violator) Roethlisberger is returning with Antonio Brown, LeVeon Bell, and Juju Smith-Schuster. (And Tom Brady, hopefully, is retiring owing to concussions. On account of which, I trust my grandsons won’t play football.) Life thus far is good! Boola, boola!