My Facebook Friend’s An Alien

Deb: All this talk lately on the blog about the future and making connections with people has got me thinking about a far-reaching connection that, despite all the technological advances, I am still yearning to make. I am talking about our frenemies, the aliens. I’m talking your Martians, your Siriuns, your Moon people, your Uranians. As we can now literally reach across the planet, why not the universe? Where are my alien Facebook friends? I don’t have one single alien friend. I have some that seem not of this world, but that’s another story.

Deb's keychain

Full disclosure and I hope this concept is not alien to you—YOU KNOW, I HAD to do that—I believe in them. The aliens, I mean. I have never doubted it. It always seemed so shortsighted not to at least believe in the possibility of life on other planets. I figure, where does Earth get off thinking it is the centre of the universe? Does the earth think it’s Toronto!?!? Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Earth. Earth rocks. It’s my favourite of all the planets. But as I stare into the night sky I just cannot believe that we are ... alone.

Yes, I loved X-Files, let’s get that out of the way.

Is it just that the internet is so last millennium to the aliens that they don’t even bother? Or are they wishing they could connect with us too? Do they have WIFI?  Or are the aliens being coy? Shy? Do they need prodding? Maybe this very blog will open their minds and they will post anonymously and say witty and brainy things to us.

My love affair with aliens started with the 1951 version of The Day The Earth Stood Still. I have been besotted with aliens since. Maybe I was just besotted with Michael Rennie. At any rate, I loved the kind, wry, condescending Klaatu played by Mr. Rennie who despite his prejudice for the lowly earthling, found himself falling for us. I have been fascinated since the first time my Mom and I sat down to watch the movie together when I was a kid. We would curl up on the couch and scream, “Say it, lady, say it!!!” as Patricia Neil was backed up against the steel fence stricken with fear as Gort advanced. Despite the fact that Gort could disintegrate a tank in seconds with the flash of his eyesheild, he was not an aggressor. He only retaliated. Never took the first shot. Or first laser in this case. He wasn’t the kidnap and probe kind of alien which, let’s face it, really gave aliens a bad rap.  Hmmm maybe aliens invented the colonoscopy?

Should I change my password to Klaatu, Barada Nicto?  Is that the welcome our neighbours seek?

My real true love affair started as a kid. I would look up at the sky and I would know in my heart that we had friends out there and, despite media to the contrary, it never seemed to me a frightening concept. I was comforted by it. The thought of our little ball rolling around this endless space in time was far too isolating for me.

At any rate, if they are out there, I would love them to make themselves known. Let’s face it, if they are out there and they are as brilliant and advanced as we think they are AND they are evil, they would have dusted us centuries ago.  Maybe they are just a tad insecure and given all the bad earthling to alien movies and press, they just haven’t found a good way to make a peaceful foray into our world, what with Michael Rennie being dead and all.

Alien contact for Dummies. Someone should invent an app for that. I would pay top dollar.

I wait in peace.

Barbara: I love me some aliens too! I would be all over having them as my FB buddies, or weighing in on the blog about what they might say to their little alien selves. I agree with you, Deb, that if they could eviscerate us, they totally would have done it already. On the other hand, maybe they’re waiting until we do the job ourselves…

I also believe that alien worlds exist, but I have slightly different (and not nearly so hilarious) take: I feel that—if our human experience on earth is just a tiny blip in the HUGE picture of time—it’s entirely possible that these short blips of human activity could be happening all over the universe, but at VASTLY different time-frames. Maaaaaybe all this soul-stuff we’re feeling is us traveling from earth to earth over millennia, inhabiting one place after another until we wear out our welcome, disintegrate to nothing, and the planet continues without us. Maybe WE are the aliens. Hmmm … Alien for thought.