The Point of Some Return

We know you have a choice, and we thank you for choosing Byrd

Most of you reading this are on my email list. You joined because you love music, and I moved you. Some of you have followed me for twenty years, named babies after my songs, and helped me out of a jam in Schiphol airport.

Now I’m a physics major. My motivations may be partly practical and financial, but I chose physics because I am passionate about it. As with writing, I poke at things until they tell me the truth, and there’s always more to uncover. There’s always someone who sees what I didn’t in my own work. There’s always room for improvement.

And there is great beauty. I have walked out of a lab in awe of the power of nature and the legacy of brilliance that is being entrusted to me and my fellow students.

I’m not done with music or writing. I may help write a book about the oldest light in the universe next summer. I still have two albums to finish and release, mostly done. However, physics is hard. At the university level, the intellectual rigor is breathtaking. Crushing, sometimes. I’m going to write about it because it’s all I do most days, I’m passionate about it, and this is what writing is for.

I know not everyone will stick around for this part of the ride. If you do, I will give you my all as I always have. Most important to my academic journey, I want to tell you what I’ve learned. A professor who has been teaching for thirty years told me last week, “When you can explain this to your grandmother, you really understand it.” I want to really understand it, and I want to try to explain it to all of you. When some of you wrote back last week and asked questions, that was exactly what I needed.

I will still write poems and sing songs. I’ll paint paintings. Creativity is important to me, and it’s an important part of being a scientist. Science isn’t about knowing; it’s about finding out, and that is creativity in a nutshell.

If you stay or go, I am honored to have been invited into your hearts and minds. That’s why I’m always:

Your fan,

Jonathan Byrd.