Recently, I was just interviewed for a radio show and one of the things we talked about was my belief that you cannot be a contemporary reader who doesn’t read science fiction. Rationally, it’s an impossibility. Even if you’re scanning the virtual pages of your Kindle, engrossed in a pre-historical treatise, you’re reading science fiction. You’re living it.

I bring this up because there have been so many instances since I became a full-time wordsmith that I’ve been asked, “What do you write?” Sometimes people show genuine curiosity, but all too often the response I hear is, “Oh, I don’t read science fiction.” Yes. Yes you do, and that should inspire you, is what I think.

I have friends who have been diagnosed with MS. I was born and raised in a place with a high incidence of the disease and I’ve watched vibrant, active and helpless people as their own immune systems eat them from the inside out. As little as 10 years ago, the idea that there would be a therapy to reverse this disease and return them all to full and productive lives was little more than fantasy. Back then, for them, we had some synthetic chemical treatments — their working mechanics a complete unknown — and a comfortable, lonely spot in an assisted living facility.

But, oh, the breakthroughs! Today, we’re on the threshold of rebuilding damaged neural tissues. Think about that for a moment, let it sink in. Despite what the standardized media outlets would have you believe, there is hope. We can fix inequity, right injustice, live together, and discover happiness. We just need the imagination to peer into that future.