Rovelli, Zanny and Arkady

ebikes, big and small

I just wanted to make note of the book I am currently reading: There are Places in the World Where Rules are Less Important than Kindness, and other thoughts on physics, philosophy and the world, by Carlo Rovelli (2018, translated 2020). It's a book of short essays, accurately summarized by the title. A gem of a book, imminently readable no matter what your level of understanding of physics/philosophy/the world.

The last essay was written in Italy near the beginning of the pandemic (April 2020), in which he talks about his observations of what is happening, in Italy and elsewhere. The last paragraph is probably the best last paragraph of a book of essays that I have read so far:

"We are not the masters of the world, we are not immortal; we are, as we have always been, like leaves in the autumn wind. We are not waging a battle against death. That battle we must inevitably lose, as death prevails anyway. What we are doing is struggling, together, to buy one another more days on Earth. For this short life, despite everything, seems beautiful to us, now more than ever."

I recommend this book, no matter what your level of understanding of history, poetry, science, philosophy. The essays are short and easy to read, but you will need to allow yourself extra time to muse about them. 

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As a subscriber to The Economist, I get to listen or participate in their zoom calls on the War in Ukraine and its implications. Each episode is one hour long, with three or four Economist editors, including the chief editor Zanny Minton Beddoes, on a Friday afternoon. For one episode two of the editors, Zanny and Arkady Ostrokov, travelled to Kyiv to interview Volodomyr Zelensky. 

Another episode included Arkady in a vehicle somewhere in eastern Ukraine reporting first hand on the eastern front of the war. That was a somewhat tense episode since it was live and they were unable to connect with Arkady until the last 15 minutes of the hour, due to internet connectivity issues (but since he was in the middle of a war there was some speculation as to whether his lack of connectivity was due to more ominous problems). 

One can actually submit one's own questions which the Economist editors field and attempt to answer on air. I have not tried to do so, but I guess it's an option. One participant asked why Arkady was in a car without a seatbelt, which Arkady assured the world was because the car he was in was parked on the side of the road (on the eastern front). 

The Zelensky interview was very interesting to watch, Zelensky switched from English to Ukrainian to Russian randomly and without a hitch. The start of the interview was delayed somewhat due to the absence of the translator who was busy translating elsewhere, Zelensky commented that it says something when the President must wait on the availability of the President's translator (strictly speaking it was interpretation not translation; translation pertains to written language). 

During the interview we saw Arkady, Zanny and Volodomyr in the same shot; the look of awe on Zanny's face communicated very well her sense that she was in the presence of a great man. She commented later that as a journalist she would leap at the chance to interview Putin, but knew that going to Moscow to interview Putin would be far more risky and dangerous than going to Kyiv to interview Zelensky, her employer would never allow it. Still...