Tuesday, July 05, 2005

 

Jess & I went to see War of the Worlds last night. There's one brief scene, only an image that flashes before your eyes, that is on my mind this morning: as refugees pour out of scorched cities and towns, we see two people pushing a cartful of books. This imagery has been used many times, but its power is undiminished. I grew up on this stuff, and with perspective I see this: science fiction is responsible for my deepest, most universal love of humanity, our achievements, and our understanding of the world. Some part of that has survived all my efforts at labored objectivity and rationality, and my psychology-inspired, sometimes depressive realism about human nature. I'm glad.

And I'm humbly grateful, on this 5th of July, that I get to walk in to my office and work, in the smallest of small ways, on adding to that understanding of the world.

posted by Miles 5:58 AM