Trust is as difficult a coin to earn and it is easily lost - the trust built over a decade can be shattered in an instant by one offhanded remark or deed.
His record throw of 12.75 metres, at the Japan Masters Athletics championship in June, shattered the world centenarian javelin record formerly held by an American.
He verges on whimsy at times, and there are purple patches: “A russet moon rose tonight, its reflection in the shattered lake ice like a blood-red Host on a wounded altar.”
This, perhaps, is the true source of Oppenheimer's ruin; he shattered his reality, and in doing so, he cast himself adrift, unstuck in time, without any hope of reclaiming the blissful certainties he once enjoyed.