My young brother born in 1943, my sister born in 1938 and me, born in 1941
P. M.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
June 29, 1960
In great catholic seminaries, school year ends on June 29, Saints Peter and Paul day which is the day chosen for ceremonies of ordination. It is the strongest moment in year, stronger than Christmas and Easter. It is the day when those who have thought and studied for long years are going to receive the mission to celebrate the mass and quit the seminary for function in a parish. At Poitiers in 1960, they are about a half dozen.
During the long ceremony of ordination which takes place in the cathedral, the rites surrounding the ordination of new priests are in the center. But previously there are also minor orders and the important step of sub-diaconate where the seminarist takes the vow of chastity.
For me, the intention did not change. After the summer holidays, I will go in to Angers 's dominican noviciate. I have at first a meeting with the superior of the seminary who was planning to make me do the military service by going before the call. I announce him thus my decision.
I had also to visit the bishop of Poitiers. He receives me without sitting in a large richly old-furnished hall. He has some words dubitationing on my religious vocation, adds that he regrets almost to not have sent me in Paris and finishes laughingly a bit: "I didn't say it to you." (exactly « Je ne vous ai rien dit. ») The interview ends by his benediction which I receive, according to the custom, a knee earthen and kissing his episcopal ring.
I reported the conversation to my director of conscience who dispelled my fears: It is the normal obstruction of hierarchy.
My plan is now known of everybody. I spent a day in the convent of Angers during the vacation of Easter. I see for the first time the novices' master and talk with him in his room. I certainly also had a first visit of the building but, except the long two travels in bus, my other memories on that day stay a bit blurred.
with the cathedral
in top-left part
P. M.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Pierre Fatou
Joseph Pierre Louis Fatou, 1878 — 1929, was a French mathematician.
Pierre Fatou P. Fatou's name is attached to a result in modern integration theory: the Fatou's Lemma which is studied in mathematics programs of science in universities at A-level plus two or three years.
P. M.
(alphacode : fatou ; numcode : 459)
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The mine of gold
Maybe Universe is the result of chance, or maybe its state is the result of a will. According to what I think of that there are two ways for conducting my existence.
If Universe is the result of chance, nobody knows whether the phenomenon "Universe" will be repeated after the foreseen end of this one. We are in a kind of mine of gold and everybody struggles to get a big part of this gold. Everybody is my enemy.
Otherwise, the question is, of course, "Who ?". And whatever the answer may be, my attitude is different from the case of a mine of gold. I shall naturally try to participate to construction and by the way own fairly a part of the result.
Reflection about, "the person", about "my person", about how I am leads to the conclusion that my existence is itself a relation: being is "being with". This, in my mind, is the university-level reformulation of what is taught to children "God is Love".
We are not in a mine of gold.
P. M.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Frank Farian
Frank Farian, born in 1941, is a German songwriter and singer.
I was born in France, on 1941 june 19; Frank Farian was born in Germay one month later, on july 18. Frank Farian (his real name is Franz Reuther Farian) certainly knew and sang Stille Nacht since his mother, like my mother, sang in the church choir. I sang it too, but in french (O sainte nuit) and as soloist in kindergarten. Later he sang with a guitar; me too. And the resemblances stop there. After having abandoned his job of cook, Farian began a career in pop music. He is known as the creator, in 1975, of the group Boney M which mixes black and white music styles and became phenomenally successful. Frank Farian had musical activity up to 2000 and beyond as shows his biography.
P. M. Note. I use elements of Farian's biography that I found on the web a few years ago. It seems that they aren't available now.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Percy Faith
Percy Faith, 1908 — 1976, was a North American musician.
One can hear a few of his orchestrations (Joy to the World, O Holy Night ... — a total of 16) in the Chrismas part of the Sound America website.
P. M.
(alphacode : faithpercy ; numcode : 237)
Friday, June 18, 2010
Nineteen
June 19th 1960. My nineteenth birthday. The photo below was taken in the great seminary of Poitiers, after a rehearsal of the Compagnons du Masque. I have a fit of the giggles and the photographer took the snapshot before I could stop laughing.
Me in the middle of year 1960 On June 19th 1960, I am still a naive boy; I still never imagined that, in ordinary life, people who speak to me can insert intentionnally hidden meanings in their words. I understand everything on the first level. And it never crossed my mind that there could be on the earth people not having the same status as me. My two years in the great seminary didn't change anything to that.
It is perhaps necessary to add that I have no love life with anybody. And that, in compliance with the rule, I have no sexual life — as one says today — though my biology is quite normal.
P. M.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
On the cement stairs
I am on the knees of my father. Sister is near mother. Since I was born in june 1941, one can find approximately the date of the snapshot.
These cement stairs, and all around were an important part of my universe during my childhood and my youth.
P. M.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Jacques Ezra
Jacques Ezra is a contemporary French professor of applied mathematics in university.
J. Ezra is joint author of a treatise of mathematical analysis for students in first year of university. I knew him an he knew me. But my rule, in this blog, is to write less possible about events of my life that took place between "present minus fifty years" and 2003, the date of my retirement. Hence I shall not say more here about this mathematician.
P. M.
Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler, 1707 — 1783, born in Switzerland, was a mathematician.
I think that I heard Euler's name for the first time at the end of my studies in high school. The program of geometry included the study of the euler line. Euler's mathematical work include many important discoveries together with their applications to physics.
P. M.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Only a soup at noon
Me, today. My trousers are too wide. My weight was 130 Kg a few years ago. Now only 95 Kg. Result got with only a soup and a yoghurt at noon, almost no real sugar and a few other tricks.
P. M.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Euclid
Euclid of Alexandria, about 325 bce — about 265 bce, was a Greek mathematician.
Euclid is « best known for his treatise on geometry: The Elements. This influenced the development of Western mathematics for more than 2000 years. » (Mac Tutor)
P. M.
Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes, 276 bce — 194 bce, was a Greek mathematician.
All mathematicians know Eratosthenes as the inventor of the famous sieve which allows to create easily the sequence of prime numbers. But this man, who lived mainly in the North of Africa, did much more. One can find his biography in Mac Tutor archives or in Wikipedia.
P. M.
Federigo Enriques
Federigo Enriques, 1871 — 1946, was an Italian mathematician.
See F. Enriques' biography.
P. M.
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