Rumi, the 13 th century mystical poet of Islam wrote: “The beauty and grandeur of God belong to Him the beauty and grandeur of the world of creation are borrowed from Him.”įor me, Dr. Most religious traditions see the Holy One reflected in creation, and creation as a way to encounter that Sacred. Francis and Bonaventure extolling God’s presence in the “book of nature.” For Bonaventure, God is “fountain fullness,” spilling out of and over everything, in all life, outer as well as inner. Miller delight in how things work reminded me of Sts.

Like Thornton Wilder said in “Our Town,” saints and poets do, some. Scientists like Montagu and Miller are not the only ones to understand the importance of such presence. In his book, Growing Young, anthropologist Ashley Montagu listed these qualities among others in the childlike nature: “…curiosity, inquisitiveness, thirst for knowledge, the need to learn, imagination, creativity, open-mindedness, experimental-mindedness, spontaneity, enthusiasm…joy…”Īlong life’s path, many of us lose that childlike amazement at the world around us. We can’t see the extraordinary all around us if we aren’t present where we are, looking with open eyes and heart. In addition to adding “enchantment to the soul,” as Miller said, it also opens the soul to receive Grace. Something else came to mind as well: What a gift to retain the wonder and abandon that are natural for children as we become adults. Those memories flooded back as I watched the episode this morning. You just learn something you didn’t expect to learn.” If it didn’t go as planned, “Oh well, an experiment never fails. Let’s do it again” (and he and she would). Miller’s frequent expressions: “That’s beautiful. For years, after my daughter disappeared into the basement to build and conduct her own experiments, she would call me down to demonstrate them and echoed two of Dr. Miller loved sharing the wonders of physics in the everyday world from air pressure, to heat conduction, to, one of our favorites, Bernoulli’s principle.

We all enjoyed them, but my oldest daughter, now a physicist herself, was the most faithful viewer.ĭr. We didn’t have cable, so my parents taped it for us. Miller’s show aired on PBS and was a staple in our house. I smiled as I watched the lesson on air pressure, a 14-minute delight of knowledge and unabashed enthusiasm. His email today included a link to a show he had rediscovered: Professor Julius Sumner Miller’s “Demonstrations in Physics. So was wonder.Ī longtime friend who attended school with my daughters and was a frequent visitor to our house, still keeps in touch though he lives most of the time in Southeast Asia. “My name is Julius Sumner Miller, and physics is my business.” That’s how he opened every show.

Julius sumner miller pbs