#30DAYSOFSCIKUCHALLENGE
Yes, I Still Believe in UFOs
Day 7 Prompt: Astronomy-Inspired Sciku
Just a meteor? I want to believe I saw a true UFO
As a youngster, I devoured science fiction –– Isaac Azimov, Robert Heinlein, Ursula K. Le Guin, Arthur C. Clarke, to name a few. I often spent my babysitting money on flashlight batteries so I could continue my under-the-covers reading into the wee hours, undetected by my helicoptering Mom-spy.
I read about mysterious ancient civilizations (thanks, Erich von Daniken), which, to my science-illiterate 13-year-old mind, had to have been built by superior beings from other worlds, being the only ones advanced enough to erect Easter Island statues and Stonehenge monoliths, or decorate the Nazca Plains with markings only visible from far above. Don’t even get me started on Machu Picchu or Area 51.
Because of my Southern Baptist upbringing –– with all its spirits, holy ghosts, god and son thereof, accompanied by thunderous warnings of hellfire, damnation, and the devil’s-gonna-getcha –– the grounds for belief in things I couldn’t verify were well-fertilized by the age of twelve.
Further, in Sunday School, we were taught that humans were superior to all other lifeforms and possessed the “god-given right” of dominion over all living things on god’s green earth.
How arrogant can humans be? But that’s another story.
Fast-forward to college years, full of chemistry, mathematics, physics, astronomy, and Shakespearean sonnets (!). My brain had begun to morph away from early “belief systems” toward a deep comprehension of how the universe actually works. Or so I thought at the time.
No matter how deeply into quantum physics my studies took me, I could never shake the sense of being watched by something mysterious, curious, alien, and benevolent –– creatures from outer space. (Thank you, Carl “Billions” Sagan!) Fearless, I would have rejoiced if one had landed in my back yard.
And then, on one otherwise normal, cloudless winter evening, about halfway home from campus for the weekend, it happened. Dark night, lonely highway, nary a lamplight to be seen –– POUF!! An intense beam of light encircled my car from above, soundless and blinding.
My car’s engine stopped running for no known reason, and I coasted to the shoulder, braking to a full stop while the circle of light stayed centered on my vehicle.
Not. A. Sound.
Simultaneously freaked and flipped out with excitement –– not to mention suddenly having to pee –– I threw open the car door, leaping out to have a look. And the light went out. Gone. Nothing there but starry sky.
I stood there a while, in the dark, alone with the stars and my wonderment, then climbed back into the car, cranked ‘er up, and drove the rest of the way home uneventfully.
And not one person, to this day, has ever believed my story.
Do you?
Thanks again to R. Rangan PhD for this thrilling and fun prompt! My story isn’t exactly about astronomy, but then it isn’t exactly NOT about it either! :D
And if you enjoy random and strange…. :D
