初めて身につけたTシャツに描かれた図柄が、「学問は光なり」という意味だと学んだことは、「光は東方より」との関係で印象深いことであり、サイエンスを科学と訳す最近の日本の傾向が、浮薄だという気持をこのとき改めて強めた。私自身が地質学と言うサイエンスを学んだし、日本にいた頃はサイエンチストを科学者と訳し、自分がサイエンチストの端くれに属すと思っていた。だが、フランスに留学して暫くした時に、ある集まりで自分がシエンチストだと自己紹介したら、シエンチストよりジェオログの方が良いと言われ、最初はその意味が良く分らなかった経験がある。
Scienceはラテン語のScientiaを起源に持ち、それは知ると言う動詞Scioに由来して、知識と言う意味の言葉であると学んだが、ローマ時代の知識階級はギリシア語を使い、
ScientiaはPhilosophiaに従属していたという。Philoは愛すると言う意味であり、Sophiaがギリシア語で知を意味しているから、知ることが好きでたまらないことが、フィロソフィーだと高校で習ったことを思い出し、昔のサイエンスは学問だったのに、専門化のために科学に落ちぶれたと痛感した。また、ハクスレーが講演した時に司会者が、「ハクスレー先生は偉大な科学者です」と言ったら、彼が「私は科学者ではない。もしScienceという言葉を使うのであれば、私はa man of scienceです」と訂正したと言う有名なエピソードがあるが、知を追求することが学問であり、学問が知であり光だと知っていたゲーテは、臨終の言葉に「もっと光を」と言ったのではないか。
いずれにしても、博識なモロッコ人にロゴの意味を教えてもらい、その日の私はとても幸福な気分に包まれていたし、ホテルの近くにインターネットカフエがあったので、底へ行ってメールと『宇宙巡礼』の掲示板を開いた。メールは十通くらい溜まっていたが、その中の一つに仙台の首藤さんからのものがあり、「ディアナサン・ダイヤモンドの株主に贈りたいので、[賢者のネジ]を100冊ほど本社に送ってほしい」という内容だったので、智慧の光はダイヤモンドの光になったと感激した。矢張り「光は当方から」差し込んで来たのであり、ことによるとシンクロニシティなのかも知れない。
ダイヤモンドの新しいカットを発明して特許をとり、数年前にディアナサン(月の女神ディアナと太陽のサンの組み合わせ)を設立した建築家の首藤さんは、「ダヴィンチの黄金のピラミット」の著者であるし、「間脳幻想」の読者として出合った人でもあった。ディアナサンのダイヤモンドに関しては、脱藩道場でその内容を紹介したことがあり、カットと色の素晴らしさについての記事が、「宇宙巡礼」のどこかのスレッドにあったと思うけれど、その記憶があやふやなので申し訳ない。
Truman didn't care much for the other presidential retreat, Camp Shangrila, which was renamed Camp David by Truman's successor, Dwight Eisenhower.
以下は原文です。長いので二つに分けました。
Former Captain of Presidential Yacht USS Williamsburg Recalls First Meeting with Truman
Robert Peniston, who spent 30 years in the Navy, recalls when he navigated the USS Williamsburg for President Harry S. Truman
SAG HARBOR, New York (The Boating Channel) - Within minutes of meeting President Harry S. Truman in 1951, the new navigator of the presidential yacht got his first executive order.
"Well, glad to have you, and keep it off the stumps," Truman told Robert Peniston, now a longtime Lexington resident.
Peniston did -- Truman came to call him the "stump jumper" -- and the year and a half he navigated the USS Williamsburg became the basis of a friendly correspondence with Truman that lasted almost until the 33rd president died in 1972.
Peniston, 75, has been recalling those days aboard the Williamsburg, reminded by the recent launch of America's newest aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman.
The "Man from Missouri" -- or "Missorourah," as natives say it -- became the object of Peniston's admiration, and an almost lifelong influence.
"There wasn't any affectation about him," Peniston said. Truman's no-nonsense approach to life reinforced lessons he'd learned from his family: "Be straight up, tell it like it is."
Peniston, who spent 30 years in the Navy, was a lieutenant in his late 20s when he was assigned to the 243-foot Williamsburg. "I'd scarcely heard of the ship," he said.
He reported to Washington, D.C., for service in April 1951 and met Truman at a party thrown by the White House aides.
Truman was standing in the garden behind Anderson House sipping a martini -- something Peniston calls out of character for the man he came to know as a fan of Old Grandad bourbon.
Truman was chewing on an olive and, just before meeting Peniston, turned his head and spit out the pit.
"Once you were introduced to this fellow, you were the center of his attention," Peniston said.
Truman liked visiting the bridge of the yacht and chatting. Though he was fond of the boat, he only sailed on it at sea once, because it pitched so badly.
But the Williamsburg remained his getaway, usually parked in the Potomac River or the Chesapeake Bay, Peniston said.
Truman didn't care much for the other presidential retreat, Camp Shangrila, which was renamed Camp David by Truman's successor, Dwight Eisenhower.
Nevertheless, part of Peniston's job was making surprise inspections at the camp.
He was under orders to stay in the president's quarters, and even sleep in his bed. The Penistons never had a complaint about the service.
"Who's going to complain?" asked Peniston's wife, Frances. "Anybody that's going to wait on me hand and foot is OK with me."
But Truman preferred the yacht, Peniston said. He could play poker with his Missouri friends there, the "pals he could talk to and it would not go any farther."
The highlight of Peniston's tenure on the Williamsburg was a visit from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Churchill, an old Navy man himself, showed up in a British lighthouse service uniform, a huge cigar always between his knuckles.
When Churchill left the Williamsburg one night about midnight, Peniston was ordered to escort the portly prime minister down the steep gangway.
"Young man, what makes you think I need your help?" Churchill demanded. "It was an order," Peniston explained.
"Then, young man, you had better do it," Churchill said.
Peniston left the Williamsburg in December 1952, shortly before Truman left office. One of his last assignments was to oversee the construction of a golf hole at Camp David for the incoming Eisenhower.
Peniston met up with Truman again in 1957. He and his wife were on their way to his new assignment at Stanford University. They arranged to call on Truman when they passed through Missouri.
Truman answered the phone himself. "I've been waiting for the stump jumper," he said.
Truman gave the Penistons an hour-long tour of the Truman library, which was not yet open to the public.
Four years later, the couple stopped off in Missouri again, and were again received by Truman for a visit.
Every year after that, on or around Truman's May 8 birthday, Peniston sent his favorite president a letter about his latest exploits in the Navy. Each time, he got a brief response.
"They were short answers, to the point, but you knew it was Truman," Peniston said.
Peniston retired as a captain from the Navy in 1976 and became director of the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University, where his son was a student.
In the meantime, he corresponded with other presidents with whom his career brought him into contact, including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. He continued to write to Truman's widow, Bess, and Mamie Eisenhower.
"She and I became pen pals," he said.
Peniston has all those letters, among scads of mementos from his career.
