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By Pago Habitans*

On an unusually warm winter morning I headed out for a walk along the Hudson River esplanade. Approaching Bank Street, I saw a small group gathered around a tall figure who was, I quickly realized, my elusive friend Brother Ben.

The group seemed intent on what Ben was saying, and followed his sweeping gesture that turned their attention to the other side of West Street. I was relieved to find that Brother Ben was apparently visible to them. Imposing as he is in stature and countenance, Ben passes unnoticed by most people. 

I caught just a snippet of his talk: “The questing spirit common to both science and the creative arts has found shelter and inspiration in that one imposing and inscrutable structure.” He was referring to Westbeth, once a center of technological innovation and now one of the largest artists’ residences in the world. 

As Ben led the group across West Street, I continued my walk along the river. I hoped I would have a chance at some point to ask him about the group and his lecture. That opportunity presented itself a few hours later.

I had just ordered lunch at the Bus Stop Cafe when Ben swept in the door. Shedding the camelhair car coat he wears over a black cassock, he sat down across from me. “They were a mixed group,” he answered, before I could pose my question. “Students of science as well as a poet, some musicians, a choreographer, and two or three devotees of various religious persuasions—all sorts of inquiring minds and imaginations.”

Before I could ask how he came to be speaking to them, Ben again answered, “Well, Pago, you know very well that the Village is famous as the great American Bohemia, a place for writers, artists, and revolutionaries. But its legacy is even richer and more comprehensive.” I nodded for him to continue. 

“Before it became housing for artists, the building we now call Westbeth was, for nearly a century, a pioneering research facility, first for Western Electric and then for Bell Laboratories.”

Brother Ben went on to list the inventive accomplishments of the men and women who worked in that pleasing and adaptable edifice. 

“Just think of it, Pago! Radio. Radar. Television. Talking Films. Transistors. Telephones. But even more consequential and profound: wave theory, as the key to quantum mechanics, was verified in that temple of technology in the 1920s.”

I felt as if one of those theoretical waves had washed over me. I asked Ben to help me even begin to understand the significance of wave theory and quantum mechanics.

“We must leave scientific definition to the physicists, but what I find exciting about the whole business is that quantum affirms the dynamic complexity of what we think of as the material world. There’s much more to it than meets the eye, Pago. The cosmos is fluid, unfolding, and full of surprises. Of course, this comes as no surprise to some of us.”

At that point lunch arrived. Helping himself to my french fries, Ben had another thought. “In the spirit of imagination, experimentation, and invention, a number of us are going to celebrate Alexander Graham Bell’s birthday on March 14th. You might want to join us.” When I asked what time and where, Ben paused and then said, “I’ll have to phone you.”

I paid the bill and we went our separate but quantum ways.

* “Village Resident,” otherwise known as T. P. Miller.

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