The Hawking Effect

This man, in case you dont recognise him, is Stephen Hawking. Hawking is a well known physicist (probably the best known living physicist), and has a severe physical handicap. At this time, I cant remember what the particular affliction Dr. Hawking suffers is, but it confines him completely and totally to his motorized wheel chair, even robbing him of his ability to speak. It could be easily argued the Dr.Hawking is one of the greatest minds of our time- Im not sure who would argue against it.
Dr.Hawking is a brilliant man, has done great things for the field of physics and the advancement of human knowledge, and Im sure that the irony that he is completely confined within his own physical form is far from lost on him. I honestly never gave this man much though-knew he was important, knew who he was, but never gave it much thought-until during a difficult time in my life I read A Brief History Of Time, a book on physics that Dr.Hawking published for the layman. I had decided to read the book because complex thoughts beyond my understanding had plagued and tortured me since early childhood. I learned alot from the book, but mostly, I found it incomprehensible-not because it was badly written, but because I couldn't comprehend it!- but the thing I found most valuable about it was the brief bits of humanity. The witty but almost clumsy little bits of humor. This was a person, a real, live person, who wanted nothing so desperatly as knowledge, and to be able to share that knowledge with another person. Surely Hawking had been plagued for years by his own questions beyong anything I could torture myself over, and he was trapped within himself to boot. In the face of his blinding spirit and humanity, what did I have to bitch about?