I having a tough time stringing together a coherent argument today. I’ve been thinking about a lot of different happenings, such as the work Neal Stephenson is doing on Hieroglyphs, the questions raised by Paolo Bacigalupi’s Water Knife, and my own limited role in the science fiction community.
A lot of this goes back to earlier conversations about not knowing what my next big ‘ambition’ would be. I spoke far too much about the fact that I had the wife, kids, white picket fence… basically the American dream at some level, yet was deeply unsatisfied by that experience. It sounded at the time like a mid-life crisis. A thousand posts later I blew up my marriage and it sounded even more like a mid-life crisis. The more I reflect on what has been happening both in my private and professional life, the more I recognize that it wasn’t a mid-life crisis at all.
It turns out I don’t subscribe to the so-called American dream. The family issues are largely unrelated to the other stuff, but separating from that specific situation put me in a state of mind to ask myself what I want, which led to me recognizing that I have never wanted those standard things I was supposed to. Yes, I appreciate the house and the stucco fence, but it is not what drives me. When I was directed towards ASU’s Project Hieroglyph, I realized at once that it was exactly what I’d been trying to do all along.
Hieroglyph marries science fiction with scientific speculation to forma relationship in which what is being written is not only reflecting on the role of science in society, but pushing it and doing so in a way that positively impacts the community. In other words, it isn’t just about telling cool stories, it is about telling stories that matter.
So, when I think about what I want to do and be and leave as a lasting impression of my life, I want to tell stories that trigger the imagination of others in a way that compels them to act–be it to research, consider, to create, or just to rationalize their own role in the world and ultimately their purpose.
Big goals indeed.