![\"\"](\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/SCLj-WBrtOI\/AAAAAAAAA6I\/_iX264DPviU\/s1600-h\/robert-heinlein2.jpg\")
<\/a>Part of the whole process of \u201csearch,\u201d engaging in the process that hopefully leads a minister within our liberal tradition to a \u201ccall,\u201d that is employment, is lots and lots of self-revelation. One thing I\u2019ve said a lot in a lot of different contexts, including here at this blog, but out of various interactions with folk along the way to that election this past Sunday to serve at the First Unitarian Church of Providence, really, really hit me: was how much I owed Science Fiction for what I call my \u201cfirst education.\u2019<\/p>\nAs someone who moved just a tad less than once a year throughout my childhood and youth, while I attended school wherever we were, there was no sense of continuity and I have to admit the formal actual education part of all this was spotty. Fortunately, the family read a lot. My mom loved mysteries. And my father read Science Fiction. Voraciously\u2026<\/p>\n
Last Saturday evening as I was standing in front of a hundred and fifty or so people rambling on about my life, I alluded to how I began reading books on my own. It\u2019s a well worn story, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve written it here several times. But, it\u2019s my story. I was thirteen or so and rummaging around boxes of stuff in the garage looking for my dad\u2019s Playboys, when I stumbled upon a cache of those old Ace editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs<\/a> novels with cover illustrations by Frank Frazetta<\/a>.<\/p>\n This began a twenty-year romance with Science Fiction.<\/p>\n My taste buds would eventually shift and it has been years and years since I\u2019ve read a Science Fiction novel. (My \u201ctrash\u201d today is the mystery genre\u2026)<\/p>\n But, how much I owe Science Fiction for opening worlds of possibility.<\/p>\n All this said, I\u2019ve just noticed how on this day in 1988 Robert Heinlein<\/a> died.<\/p>\n I was particularly a fan of what was called \u201chard science fiction.\u201d And my favorite authors were probably Isaac Asimov<\/a>, Arthur C. Clarke<\/a> and Heinlein. My holy trinity for a number of years. Each said a lot to me in my formation as an adult. I\u2019ve mentioned both Asimov and Clarke elsewhere. And that would be appropriate as I probably owe them the most. I don\u2019t recall mentioning Heinlein, although I hope I have\u2026<\/p>\n If not quite as important as Asimov and Clarke to me, he was very, very important. Heinlein\u2019s fierce devotion to the individual was very revelatory. His advocacy of polyamory opened my constrained Baptist eyes to the idea that even human sexuality was not necessarily the way the dominant culture claimed it was. And his devotion to clear thinking, most of all, and which he shared with Asimov and Clarke suggested a route that would, frankly, eventually take me far away from his philosophy, and to what I would become.<\/p>\n My, oh, my; what I owe that man and those authors.<\/p>\n Thank you.<\/p>\n Part of the whole process of \u201csearch,\u201d engaging in the process that hopefully leads a minister within our liberal tradition to a \u201ccall,\u201d that is employment, is lots and lots of self-revelation. One thing I\u2019ve said a lot in a lot of different contexts, including here at this blog, but out of various interactions with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n