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When we are young, the world is a magical, wondrous place. Everything is possible. We believe in Santa Claus, fairies, and closet monsters. But as we grow, we begin to look at things with a more critical eye. Suddenly Santa's beard looks fake, we wonder why mom and dad are taking the tooth from under our pillow, and the closet becomes just that -- a closet. As the years find us, we are bombarded with products and services meant to make our increasingly complicated lives easier. It's not long after we buy into a few of these gimmicks that we begin to realize that not everything is as it seems -- and so we walk around as adults scrutinizing, measuring, comparing, and researching every idea and product we come across. Somewhere along the way, the colors of the world have faded, and good is only good if it comes with a money-back guarantee. It may not be the greatest way to get through our day, but the stakes are too high to risk buying in one more time.
Eventually, we seek to escape the hardships of this grueling reality. So we read, we watch movies, and we enter other worlds through sight, sound, and literature. And what better way to enter a new world altogether than flirting with the genre of science fiction and fantasy. From mythical creatures to new life forms, the unique realities one can read are an excellent way to forget the woes of our own world. That is, until the skeptic follows us there.
There is nothing more tiring than watching a movie and having to listen to that one person in the background grumble about how fake something looks, or how a particular scene could never happen. Yeah, we get it, it's not real. Thanks for the reality check. What people seem to forget is that the appeal of sci-fi/fantasy rests in its ability to bend reality and bring imagination to life. It's meant to delight our senses and bring us something new to ponder. It asks: what if...?
 The emergence of 3D imaging and computer graphics has taken away our ability to just sit back and believe. But what if we took a step back from the screen and just rolled with the ideas? What sort of possibilities could we encounter if we left the skeptic at the theatre entrance, or on the table of contents page?
No matter who you are or what your tastes, everyone should read one hard-core sci-fi and fantasy novel in their lifetime. From the futuristic possibilities of Robert J. Sawyer's Wake:Watch:Wonder trilogy, to the surreal connections of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, these stories hand us the what if with the intent to challenge our beliefs and awaken our senses to the beauty of things unreal. Our skepticism keeps us afloat -- and at times it can keep us alive -- but when we choose to leave our world for someone else's we should also leave our skepticism behind.
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