Brian Greene Tells LMU Graduates: Embrace Your Moment in the Cosmos with Curiosity and Gratitude
Addressing a rapt crowd on LMU's sun-filled Westchester campus, the best-selling author told graduates 'we have each won the most improbable cosmic lottery.' See the press kit with images and Greene's commencement video HERE.
'Think about how utterly unlikely it is that you exist,' Greene said. 'Think about the nearly infinite collection of quantum processes stretching from The Big Bang until today … yet against those astounding odds – for a brief moment of time you exist, as do I.'
Drawing on discoveries from Albert Einstein to Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan to Edwin Hubble, Greene traced for students and attendees the arc of scientific discovery allowing us to better understand our place in the universe, and the phenomenon of our capacity to live, comprehend, and connect with one another. Greene also noted the contributions of Jesuit-educated Catholic priest Georges Lemaître, who 'used Einstein's math to catch a glimpse of the possibility that space might be expanding,' an idea widely rejected at the time, only to be established a few years later.
'We can think about the past. We can imagine the future. We can take in the universe, mind and body, with reasoning and emotion allowing us to figure out astonishing things, like how stars shine and light travels, how black holes form and time elapses, allowing for creative achievements … all created by minds like yours, like mine, and that …most certainly will continue to create great beauty, to illuminate great mystery, to experience great wonder.'
This phenomenon of human existence, Greene concluded, 'should give us all a deep sense of connection. A kind of cosmic communion, and a sense that I can summarize with one word: gratitude.'
'Gratitude for being a small transient part of this wondrous unfolding, gratitude for our capacity to come together in groups that, at their best, allow us to each realize our potential, gratitude for our capacity for courage like that of George Lemaître, to stand up to authority, to not accept easy answers, and when necessary to fight for what we believe in. Gratitude that is for human existence, for fragile, delicate, difficult, challenging, painful, exhausting, beautiful, exquisite, transcendent, human existence, however brief, however evanescent, however fleeting.'
Greene is a lifelong learner committed to intellectual inquiry, educational access, and academic excellence. Described by The Washington Post as 'the single best explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today,' he is the author of four acclaimed books that have collectively sold millions of copies worldwide. His latest best-selling release, 'Until the End of Time,' which explores the cosmos and our quest to understand it, was named one of the '100 Notable Books of 2020' by The New York Times.
Greene's books have been adapted into two Emmy and Peabody Award-winning NOVA miniseries, both of which he hosted. With journalist Tracy Day, he co-founded the World Science Festival, whose flagship events in New York and Australia have reached an audience of more than two million people, and more than 250 million people online. Greene has appeared on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,' played himself in an episode of 'The Big Bang Theory,' and made cameo appearances in films including 'Frequency,' 'Maze,' and 'The Last Mimzy.' A Harvard graduate and a Rhodes Scholar, he serves as director of Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Physics.
Nearly 2,900 LMU undergraduate, graduate, and law students participated in weekend commencement celebrations, which began Saturday with Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson addressing the undergraduate commencement ceremony.
ABOUT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
Loyola Marymount University is one of the nation's top-ranked Catholic universities, recognized by U.S. News & World Report among the top 50 private and top five Jesuit institutions in the country, and among California's top six private schools. Founded in 1911 and rooted in the Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount traditions, LMU enrolls 7,100 undergraduates and 3,000 graduate and law students across seven colleges and schools. The university offers 56 undergraduate majors, 57 minors, 43 master's degree programs, three doctorate programs, and 12 credential/authorization programs. With top-ranked programs in law, film and television, entrepreneurship, business, and the arts, LMU is embedded in the creative, cultural, and economic life of Los Angeles. The university generates $1.4 billion in annual economic impact. A proud member of the West Coast Conference, LMU fields 14 NCAA Division I teams and competes with purpose, pride, and integrity.
LMU news and events are found at: www.lmu.edu/news.
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