Quote:
“He’d pull me back into the center, and I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” He nodded. “Big, undreamed of things--the people on the edge see them first.” (p. 84)
Thoughts:
In the book, the main character, Paul, has this old friend Ed Finnerty. They came up threw the ranks together as young men out of college, and Ed had been assigned to some important bureaucratic job. Ed shows up at a critical point in Paul's life, and gives him a different perspective on the current state of affairs in their world. Ed has rejected the whole machine based idea of "progress". He has retreated from "the system", and is trying to find his own way. He is struggling to reconnect with his own humanity, and I think he goes to Paul, because Paul's the only real friend he's ever had. This quote is his, and I think it reflects his position well. Finnerty has left the norms of society, and is living "on the edge" (like a modern John the Baptist). And there's a tension between Paul's wife and Finnerty. Paul's wife is trying to pull Paul to the center, but Finnerty is trying to pull Paul to the "edge".
I like what he says about people on the edge seeing "undreamed of things...first". This is worth reflecting on. Those who are solidly in the center of the current system, I think, are too trapped to really see what's coming next. As Finnerty says, only those on the edges, on the periphery, can see what's on the horizon. That's where innovations and even revolutions happen.
“He’d pull me back into the center, and I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” He nodded. “Big, undreamed of things--the people on the edge see them first.” (p. 84)
Thoughts:
In the book, the main character, Paul, has this old friend Ed Finnerty. They came up threw the ranks together as young men out of college, and Ed had been assigned to some important bureaucratic job. Ed shows up at a critical point in Paul's life, and gives him a different perspective on the current state of affairs in their world. Ed has rejected the whole machine based idea of "progress". He has retreated from "the system", and is trying to find his own way. He is struggling to reconnect with his own humanity, and I think he goes to Paul, because Paul's the only real friend he's ever had. This quote is his, and I think it reflects his position well. Finnerty has left the norms of society, and is living "on the edge" (like a modern John the Baptist). And there's a tension between Paul's wife and Finnerty. Paul's wife is trying to pull Paul to the center, but Finnerty is trying to pull Paul to the "edge".
I like what he says about people on the edge seeing "undreamed of things...first". This is worth reflecting on. Those who are solidly in the center of the current system, I think, are too trapped to really see what's coming next. As Finnerty says, only those on the edges, on the periphery, can see what's on the horizon. That's where innovations and even revolutions happen.
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