Brazos River Beat: The UFO Report

July 27, 2010--The UFO Report: Well, here it is another night has gone by, and I have no alien contacts to report. Nothing stranger sighted than my son-in-law, who, come to think of it, is most likely stranger than any extraterrestrial I’ll ever meet. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “Compared to what?” When queried about what we were having for supper (I live my daughter and him), he said, “I don’t know, but whatever it is, I’m spitting in it.” Anyway, I’m sure you get the picture, and I’m also sure that he is a life form all his own. The genetic code in his ancestry must have broken down somewhere.

I digress, let’s get back to “ordinary” UFO’s, shall we? I am among the number of people who firmly believe in the existence of the presence of life in the stars; we are not alone, say I. Though I feel no need to defend my beliefs, let me assure you that I have reason to believe as I do. I have a sighting of my own, for one thing. When I was a young lad of about 12 or 13, I was playing outside one night (yes, back then children used to still “play” when they were 12 or 13, ask your grandpa if you don’t believe me) when a somewhat yellowish light blossomed in the northern sky, and there in the center of that light a tiny cigar or disc shaped object appeared for a few scant seconds; then POOF!, it disappeared, taking the strange light with it. I was frozen to the spot for a bit; then, when the shock wore off, I ran inside and told my dad about it. “Ahuh,” he said, “must’ve been one of them flying saucers!” And then he stuck his nose back into the book he was reading, and never mentioned it again…

But there you have it, a lifetime of belief begun on one summer’s night. I am now old and wrinkled, but that light and that image are still burned in my memory as if it happened just yesterday. There are many other reasons to believe in life on other worlds; reasons that some would say are even better than a young boys sighting. The sheer mathematical probabilities, for instance. We puny earthlings have no way of even estimating how many stars there are, but we do know they number in trillions upon trillions. To assume that all life was born on one little planet is to ignore the odds, and any casino will tell you the futility of that. Besides the fact that they always come out on top, they are not even dealing with the magnitude of numbers we are in the planetary life game; one can only wonder what kind of odds they would give on money bet on existence. Something like 1/1000000000000000000000000000000000000~…? Notice I said “on existence”, not on “finding proof of existence” in our lifetimes. Given the fact that we are constantly trying to kill ourselves, none of us are likely to live long enough to ever meet any extraterrestrials. It remains a dream of mine, however. Someday I hope to be able to shake the hand of a living entity from another world, or draw my sword and do battle with him, or whatever. Even if it kills me, I will rest in peace, because I will finally, finally KNOW!

But, you know what really, really, bugs me? It’s that some of you vain people who only believe in life on Earth, probably meet aliens everyday, and don’t even know it. Shame on you…

Brazos Mason