“UFOs”

   There’s been a lot – I mean, a lot – of talk about unidentified flying objects these days (called something else). In fact, some officials are saying that what is being seen today coincides with UFOs spotted decades ago. Yesterday, saying you were a witness to these “flying saucers” made you an instant weirdo; today, not so fast.

   Our technology makes it such that images in the sky are clearer and more “accurate.” I put that word in quotation marks because like all theories there will be those who dismiss life on planets other than ours out of hand, and others who just aren’t sure. Of course, there are those who will swear by what they saw, and their supporters will as well even though they don’t have the hard facts.

   As I’ve mentioned before, many years ago I was listening to a call-in radio program. The subject under discussion was one’s favorite movie. With my Bluetooth at the ready (meaning I didn’t have to hold a phone while driving), I called…and got through. I told the host and those listening to the show that my favorite movie was “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

   When he asked to explain, I told him and, again, those listening to the show, that for the first time the aliens aren’t creepy, miserable, blood-thirsty, murderous beings. They are kind and helpful, and they are beautiful. I always thought to myself “Why do we have to have such chutzpah to believe we are above so high-and-mighty, so God-like, and everything that might be “out there” would be our enemies?” This movie makes my point.

   As far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out. Most likely every sighting can actually be easily explained, that what was seen was something other than a “flying saucer.” Nevertheless, I prefer to believe that if life does exist “out there,” that life will be benevolent, and as a sci-fi episode on Twilight Zone posited, there might be aliens whose desire is truly “to serve man.” Of course, despite what Rod Serling’s amazingly creative mind would suggest in that title, he too portrayed aliens as they are usually presented…not in a good light at all. 

   But – and let me stress this – BUT in the meantime, just like our view of a Messiah or a Messianic Age, we can’t worry about what might be, good or bad; we can only work to be the best earthlings. Maybe one day we can travel the galaxies and bring the best we have to offer to whatever beings are out there, if any are. But – and let me stress this even more – B U T in the meantime we must work to create the best right here, and we’ve got a long, long way to go before we achieve that.