A Life in Dialogue

I believe that the sense of limitless horizons for human potential in classic science fiction, such as the works of Isaac Asimov, opened my mind at a young age to the "radical" idea that any system, seen from a wider perspective, can and should be changed for the better, an ideal that at its core is profoundly biblical. The Bible is essentially "counter-cultural" in any given period of history. It measures the present always to the yardstick of human and, indeed, cosmic perfection of the End Time of universal justice, harmony, and peace. Such a concept is guaranteed to make the people of any generation open to its call to be restive and uncomfortable with human institutions in which they live and with which they interact, whether political or religious. I am obviously not alone in this. I believe "thinking outside the box" is to some extent a characteristic of my generation, which came to age in the 1960's, however much life's trials and challenges have forged and molded that instinct in diverse ways.