The other day, my friend John Moffat called me. He told me about a letter that he received the day before. An old school letter, paper-in-an-envelope, brought by the mailman.
A letter from the Prime Minister of Canada.
In these sad days, we have to question the authenticity of everything but no, this letter was the real thing: an actual letter, on embossed letterhead, with a handwritten signature.
I don’t know what prompted the Prime Minister’s office to send this letter to John. I refuse to speculate.
The letter itself stands on its own. It is a very dignified recognition of John’s amazing (and amazingly long!) career as a physicist, and a true note of appreciation that he decided to live his incredible life in this great country, Canada.
Congratulations, John. Perhaps you deserve more recognition. You definitely deserved this. And keep up the good work. I am rooting for you: perhaps I’ll be there when you celebrate your 100th birthday, still in good health and good spirits, still working on MOG/STVG, your nonlocal quantum field theory, your complexified manifold proposal and other intriguing ideas!
Shame on me, I never heard of Professor Moffat before (obviously as I’m too ignorant to learn such an advanced areas of physics), but Wikipedia greatly enlightens. Particularly this amusing story of his exchange of letters with Einstein and meeting in person with Bohr. With respect to Mr.Carney I feel he is perhaps a bit overshadowed :)
I’ll try to see if I can get his book of memoirs mentioned in wiki! And this painting of forest landscape – it’s a charm for sure.
If I may ask, it would be curious to know what letters or (perhaps recollections of interactions) with outstanding people you treasure yourself, which were most memorable.