The enigma of timing

I watched a special on Einstein a couple of nights ago. At one point before his career took off, he had taken a great deal of time to prepare and outfit two teams of people with telescopes to catch one of those once-in-a-decade type of lunar eclipses to prove the general theory of relativity he was working on. This attempt failed for both teams due to the interruption of World War I. The German team was detained by the Russians; the American team was found and told to disband and go home.  He was disheartened about this, but continued believing in his theory.

About 3 years later, he was separated from his wife, so he spent a lot of time alone. He spent some of that time reviewing his theory. Lo and behold, his pet theory had a flaw. His main math equation was wrong. He spent some time revising his math. Finally, he thought his equation was ready to present to the world again. When he did publish his general theory of relativity, the Nobel prize was not far behind. Lucky for him, he had a failed attempt at proving his theory before it was ready. He would not have likely had a career had he published when first planned. His math would not have stood the test of scrutiny by peers. The unforgiving nature of the scholarly world would likely not have allowed him to recover his standing.

I don't always understand the timing of things. I just know that I'm ready sometimes for things to happen before they actually do. But I take a lesson from the pages of Einstein's life. Sometimes I get lucky like Einstein when events don't happen when I first think they should only later to have those events happen when I am better ready. Sometimes, though, I am left to wonder why some things never happened. And sometimes I wonder if events are waiting for me to make them happen.

Timing is a mystery to me. But I take hope when I see how the events in Einstein's life played out. I should be so fortunate.