This is a lovely chance to write for János, about János, with János in mind. It is a rare luck to have a teacher, who has taught a lesson that wise questions are a greater advantage than true answers and love for life in all its manifestations is more important than admiration and practice of scholarship. However, if I am to condense the lessons that I’ve learned from János into a principle (which is a loss, as such a reduction excludes talks, opinions, and gestures that tell their meta-stories on topics that are touched and those that are left in silence) this would be the principle that appeared on the margins of my draft papers that János read and commented. I call it János test and apply it far more broadly than drafted papers.
I must have come across the formula of the János test in one of the very first assignments submitted at the beginning of my MedStudies in Budapest, in autumn ’96. Yet it took me a while to realize that this short comment functions as a universal test. That note written near something that I thought looked like an elaborate paragraph read “Are you sure?” And, of course, I wasn’t. I just wrote something complicated expecting it sounded wise. It took me to read through quite a number of János’ comments to realize that the “Are you sure?” note accompanied exactly those passages about of which I was far from confident. Finally, I learned that I should apply János test before I give him my drafts. In the beginning, it was a self torture after a scheme: “Am I sure? – Of course, not!” But what a joy, when finally I could answer “I guess, I am.” Today, I rely on János test in its extended applications and the test never fails me, even though I sometimes fail the test.
Happy birthday, dear János!
My warmest greetings, full of love and admiration that I am absolutely sure of!
Yours, Giedrė
Giedrė Mickunaite
