Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.” ‘
I picked it up:
‘”The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes, the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.” ‘
He smiled widely, and answered:
‘”Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Page 167
Heinlein, Robert A – To Sail Beyond the Sunset.txt
Of all the western stars, until I die.” ‘
He stood up. ‘Tennyson wears well, does he not? And if Odysseus can challenge age,
so can we. Come in tomorrow and let’s start planning a course of study toward your
doctorate. Most of it will have to be independent study but we will look over the
prospectus and see what courses could be useful to you.’
In June 1950 I was awarded the degree of doctor of philosophy in metaphysics, my
dissertation being tided ‘A Comparison of the World Pictures of Aristocles, Arouet,
and Dzhugashvili considered through interaction of epistemology, teleology, and
eschatology.’ The actual content was zero, as honest metaphysics must be, but I
loaded it with Boolean algebra, which (if solved) proved that Dzhugashvili was a
murdering scoundrel… as the kulaks of the Ukraine knew too well.
I gave a copy of my dissertation to Father McCaw and invited him to my convocation.
He accepted, then glanced at the dissertation and smiled. ‘I think Plato would be
pleased to be in the company of Voltaire… but each of them would shun the company
of Stalin.’
Over the course of many years the only person to translate correctly at first glance
all three of those names was Father MeCaw… except Dr Bannister, who thought up the
joke.
The dissertation was not important. But the rides required that I submit enough
pounds of scholarly manuscript to justify the degree. And for four years I had a
wonderfully good time, both there and across the boulevard.
The same week I got my Ph.D. I registered at KU Medical School and at Kansas City
School of Law – little conflict as most lectures at the Law School were at night,
whereas the courses I took at the Medical School were during the day. I was not a
candidate for MD but for a master’s degree in biochemistry. I had to register for a
couple of upper division courses, but was allowed to do so while being accepted as a
candidate for MS (I think I would have been turned down had I not walked in with a
still-damp doctorate). I did not really care whether or not I received the master’s
degree; I simply wanted to treat an excellent applied-science school as an
intellectual smorgasbord. Father would have loved it.
I could have had that degree in one year; I stayed longer because there were still
more courses I wanted to attend. In the meantime the KC School of Law was supposed
to require four years… but I had been there before, having attended several of
their courses while Brian was getting his law degree, 1934-38. The dean was willing
to credit me with courses simply by examination as long as I paid full-fees for each
course – it was a proprietary school; fees were a prime consideration.
I took the bar examinations in the spring of 1952 – and passed, to the surprise of
my classmates and professors. It may have helped that my papers read: ‘M. J.
Johnson’ rather than ‘Maureen Johnson’. Once I was admitted to the bar there was no
fuss about my law degree; the school boasted about the percentage of its students
that made it all the way into the bar – a much tougher hurdle than the degree.
That is how I legitimately got four academic degrees in six years. But I honestly
think that I learned the most at the tiny little Catholic college at which I was
only a listener, never a candidate for a degree.
Especially from a Japanese-American Jesuit priest, Father Tezuka.
For the first time in my life had an opportunity to learn an oriental language and I