Universal Solitude: A Tale of Exploring the Mysteries of the Universe

Author: Dennis Overbye (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-03-01
Features: Excerpt: Few people are granted the key to the gates of heaven, and Alan Sandage is one of the few. He said that from as far back as he can remember, "the hounds of heaven" had been pursuing him. He was an only child, born in Iowa City in 1926. Whether in his family background or in his nature, the two forces of the secular and the spiritual were constantly clashing. His grandfather, Moses Sandage, was a self-sufficient farmer in Missouri, while his maternal grandfather was the president of a university and also a elder of the Church of the Later Day Saints—a branch of the Mormon Church that did not migrate west. His father was a professor of advertising at Miami University in southern Ohio. His mother was born in the Philippines, and his father was sent there by President Taft to reform the education system. Sandage said he was a devout child in his early years. A spiritual longing that he could not shake off was constantly nourishing and tormenting his soul. In his earliest impressions of nature, he was filled with awe. Existence was filled with wonder, and later, he painfully recalled, it was a miracle when this sense of wonder seemed to fade forever. The woods were full of vitality. "Dad, Dad, look, look—there's a flower like a girl, so sharp and full of joy. At that time, the boy had his own unique appreciation. He often recalled going to church alone on Sundays when his parents were still asleep. Meanwhile, the other half of his personality was also growing, and it was tempered even stronger by the ensuing Great Depression, becoming more passionate, serious, and energetic. He grew up in an intellectual family where ambition and success were the family's constant demands for its children.