Evidence of our divergent points of view would still surface occasionally, however, when in my zeal for clear-cut, definitive solutions to broad human problems, I asked questions that he felt were so all encompassing that they were impossible to answer. Generally, he attributed these kinds of questions to my characteristic Western “absolutist” thinking, the tendency to see things in terms of black and white—a contrast to his customary view that human problems are often more complex, nuanced, composed mostly of gray areas.
