MAY 15, 2024
The exalted American chemist and social activist was suffering from a profound case of the jitters on Feb. 30, 1960. Dr. Linus Pauling had reached the Edge of the Earth — otherwise known as the Big Sur bluffs — and it scared the bejabbers out of him.
So he did what any accomplished genius would do: He peered into the darkness and lectured the churning sea about the nature of chemical bonds.
It seemed like the right thing at the time. If nothing else, Dr. Pauling had to know that heavy-duty brainwork is a great way to avoid thinking about fear, fatalism or falling off a cliff.
He was 58 at the time, and he was regarded as one of the 20 greatest scientists to ever roam this planet. Dr. Pauling was a chemist with a conscience, a Nobel Prize winner, an outspoken champion for international peace, and a genius with an inclination for dissent.
Admired as he was, the genius community was naturally concerned that the great man had gone missing when he wandered from his Big Sur home on that January morning. And his extended family and colleagues were distraught after later hearing reports that Dr. Pauling had died.
For the rest of this wonderful article, click on this link: https://montereyneighborsandfriends.substack.com/p/linus-pauling-gets-the-jitters?publication_id=538884
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Wonderful story. Thanks for sharing. Reminds me of when I was a kid, climbing up a tall tree only to find I could not get back down (or so I thought). With some encouragement and direction, I made it back down by myself. These events are also an allegory for some emotional cliff hangers we have in life. Sometimes all we need is a little help.
Great story. I interviewed Pauling at his Big Sur retreat in 1993, not long before he died. It was a great visit, but I wish I’d heard this story before then and could have asked him about it. Or maybe not…
(Jack Kerouac famously also spent a harrowing night lecturing to the Big Sur surf, at Bixby Creek just after Pauling’s ordeal - see Kerouac’s book “Big Sur” - but that was a quite different scenario).
Kate, Mahalo for sharing. From the present "crusty Old caretaker" of/at the very same, Dr. Linus Pauling's, property, (Evans homestead).
I have shared with His Daughter, nearing Her 92nd birthday, living in Her childhood home in Pasadena, She and Her children, and their children, and cousins, still hang out at the Ranch.
And, Kate, Thank You for doing All, the rest of what You Do!