‘Eulogy from a physicist’

Herbie Gomez .

FORMER governor and Cagayan de Oro mayor Vicente “Dongkoy” Emano died this week, marking the end of another chapter in local politics. We just saw history happen.

What can I say? Dongkoy was a charismatic speaker who developed his own art of politics and mastered it, and he knew the political terrain in this part of the country like the palm of his hand. He was the politician’s politician, a traditional politician par excellence, who waged his political battle until his last breath.

Condolences to Gov. Bambi Emano and the rest of the Emano family.

I cannot imagine the mixed emotions and anxiety the governor must be going through right now given the loss of his father at a time when his hands are full because of Monday’s elections. I mean, here is a man who would be bringing his father to his final resting place at a time when he is leading a political army to battle. Even if Bambi wins a reelection, he would still find himself grieving next week.

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Speaking of demises, let me borrow American physicist Aaron Freeman’s 2005 “Eulogy from a Physicist” which gives an entirely different perspective of death. Freeman is also a writer, broadcast journalist, and standup comedian.

Freeman’s “Eulogy” provides the science to the subject of death, and points out that when we die, it doesn’t really mean that we’re gone. It’s a reflection on what really happens to us when we “cease to exist” from the point of view of someone who understands thermodynamics, particle physics, and quantum mechanics.

Freeman states:

“You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every BTU (British thermal unit) of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.

“And at one point you’d hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.

“And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.

“And you’ll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they’ll be comforted to know your energy’s still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you’re just less orderly. Amen.”

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What is the difference between someone who vilifies a dead politician and someone who willfully exploits his death for political ends? Nothing. Their acts are inappropriate, and they leave a bad taste in my mouth. Both are disgusting human beings. Pastilan.