Some Personal Thoughts on Life - 2013

 I’ve had a most fortunate life. I was born into a relatively privileged family in a country that has had a peaceful existence with stable political and economic systems for many years. My family provided the finances to give me a good education to graduate level in my chosen career – mechanical engineering. After my undergraduate degree I was again fortunate to receive a scholarship funded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology so that I could obtain a Master of Science degree and return to Australia as a lecturer at the University of Melbourne.

 As I returned to Australia fate again shined fortune on my life by my meeting with a beautiful, intelligent young woman, with whom I found much in common and soon fell in love. When she agreed to marry me I was absolutely delighted and have been lucky to retain that feeling for over 50 years. Certainly there have been times when Nell and I have strongly disagreed on some matters, but we have been very lucky to retain the warm feeling of love and support that we have for each other.

 Our three children have been a great joy to Nell and me. Each very different in their attitude to life, they have at times provided some difficulties, which have been good challenges for us. They have each grown as successful people with good marriages and delightful children of their own. We have greatly enjoyed watching (and to a small extent participating) in the development of each of our very special grandchildren and our new great-grandchild.

 My career with four universities, CSIRO and an international consortium of companies and universities was very enjoyable and achieved some engineering and manufacturing successes, largely because of the great people with whom I was lucky to be associated.

 I was brought up in the Protestant Christian religion to believe that there was one God and that some 2000 years ago a man, born in Bethlehem, was a special messenger of God, known as the Messiah, or son of God.  I was taught that the Bible, a book put together around the year 400 from the writings of many people (unfortunately with little input from women), was a divine word from God.  Amongst other things, the Bible was said to provide a directive for living a good life that may lead to a blissful afterlife.

 As I have grown older and examined science, philosophy and history, I (like many others) have formed the view that gods and spirits are fabrications made up by early humans to explain natural phenomena and to offer a life after death.  Explanations differ, but none has provided evidence of a god or gods with clear prescriptions for living.  However, I accept the contrary argument, that it is impossible to prove that some all-encompassing god does not exist.

 I now accept the view that memory, emotion, thinking and reasoning are stored and processed in the animal brain (including the human brain) and when the brain ceases to function, so the mind switches off.  We are all lucky to be born and one lifetime is enough.

 Life is fantastic: I am thrilled by the earth, the sky and the sea; I am delighted by the diversity of plants, animals and other living creatures; I am delighted by the loving companionship of family and friends; I am in awe of the achievements of the human brain and hope that our species will develop more loving relationships all over our globe and beyond to distant planets where future humans may venture and meet new creatures.

 In common with most people, I know that I have not shown as much love, nor fully expressed my thanks, to my family, friends and contacts as I would have wished, but, on balance, I feel that I have contributed in a very modest way to loving friends and family and the making of a better world. 

Robert Hallowes Brown  14/05/2013

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