Aliens.......

There is something on the National Geographic channel right now about the possibility that there are aliens out there somewhere. It's hosted by Peter Jennings, so it can't just be a show of nuts. I probably wouldn't have chosen to watch the National Geographic channel on my own, but it's where hubby landed before he dozed off in his recliner, and if I get up to commandeer the remote control, it will just wake him up.

I have very mixed feelings about there being other "intelligent" life out there on a planet besides ours. (I say "intelligent" like that because I'm not completely convinced that there is intelligent life on OUR planet.)

I scoff at all the "eye witness" accounts of encounters with spaceships, aliens, dancing lights, and hovering craft. I usually chalk it up to the folks being on drugs or sadly in need of attention.

But when I consider the size of the universe and the fact that we are a mere speck in it, I am absolutely convinced that there is no way we are the only form of life out there. I mean come on, our own solar system, vast as it is (even with the expulsion of poor little Pluto), is a mere dot in the sky compared to the rest of the universe. What are the odds that we are the ONLY planet with life on it?

I don't necessarily think there are little green men running around or that they have one huge eye in the middle of their heads or that they have four arms and three legs. I just think there is life out there. If they are years ahead of us in technology, transportation, economics, education, etc., perhaps we can learn from them. Maybe they can tell us if the bailout of the auto industry is really the thing to do. They may be able to tell us a better way to choose a national champion in college football than the current BCS mess. They may have an idea of why Britney Spears just won't go away. Maybe they could help me understand how a fax machine really works. They may giggle at my Blu-Ray disc player because they already KNOW it will be obsolete in a year or two. Perhaps they'll wonder why the computer I hold on my lap is so extremely huge. Same for the cat who is attempting to find room in my lap as well. They may be able to figure out who really killed Nicole Simpson. And how many shooters there really were in Dallas in November of 1963, and how that bullet turned left in midair. I'll bet they fly right by our International Space Station and stare at the quaint little astronauts the way some people gawk at the Amish people in their horse-drawn buggies. Maybe they'll have had some experience with global warming and can put that baby to rest once and for all. I'll bet if they are superior to us in intelligence, they can even explain the last episode of Sopranos.

If they are behind us in development, won't it be fun to show them cool video games like Pong? Hula hoops? Electric typewriters? Fuel-injected engines? Birthday candles that you can't blow out? Curved mascara wands?