"Billions...and Billions..."

So I just finished watching "Contact" again for the billionth time. I do love that movie. I think because it makes people question their own beliefs in their pursuits for truth and how religion does play some role in this pursuit. Be it your total non belief in anything secular and that religion is what rules our known universe or that your scientific beliefs and evidence of truth could have a world impact causing the pillars of heaven to shake, so to speak.

I think it represents both of these spectrum's fairly evenly without prejudice.

Where do I lie? Good question. I believe that everyone has their own personal right to believe in what they wish. Be it a vengeful god with a flowing white beard, or a giant ball of noodles, or even some sort of celestial being. Whatever your beliefs are, every individual has a right to believe in them, even the atheists (believe it or not guys, it is a belief that you follow).

However, I do have my own personal views on "religion". So without getting into a huge debate about religion, which this post is NOT about and we'll get to that, I think that following anything blindly, without questioning it's purpose or existence can be dangerous. I also believe that as long as your faith and your pursuit in this faith does no harm to anyone or ones self, emotionally, physically or mentally, then you have the right to pursue it.

I personally do not believe in a God by most religious definitions. I believe in a law. I believe in a law in the universe and the harmony that bonds the universe to our known natures, human, animal, botanical, etc. I believe that the force that engineered these laws, the architect responsible for initiating and maintaining these forces falls within my own definition of what God is, just as Carl Sagan would say. It's less scientific I know, and most scientists would argue since their one basic law is to concede to existing evidence and nothing more. As for me, there are far too many questions than there are answers, and within these questions I find proof in the unexplained.

It isn't a hope, to me it is a proof, because the force and process of "life" existed before we ever came to be. We didn't create life, we fell into it's existence.

So with that, brings me to what this post is truly about. Life and existence beyond our own. I believe that without a doubt, we are not alone in this vast darkness we call the universe. For someone to say that we are, I believe to be a very arrogant statement. We still can't cure the common cold, we can't even decide if Pluto is a planet or not (I'm sure that Plutonians are probably kinda pissed about this). So to say that without a doubt that we are the only known existence of life as we know it in the universe, is arrogant.

I believe in other civilizations. It doesn't matter if they are microbes frozen in some inter galactic space ice, or a free thinking population of people with their own political struggles. I believe it's out there.

Why?

Because in July of 1989, I saw proof. Undeniable, unequivocal, "Holy shit what did I just see?!", proof.

Back in the summer of 89, my mother who was pregnant and about to burst with my youngest brother, Kaelan, had taken up a paper route to earn extra cash while being on maternity leave. This wasn't an ordinary paper route that a grade schooler takes up to save money to buy comic books and a cheap necklace for his first girlfriend. This paper route took 4-5 hours every morning to complete.

We had a ritual for this. We would wake up at about 1am or so and head down to this lot where we would get our daily delivery. We had to roll each newspaper, rubber band them, add any and all inserts for the latest coupons and local deals and load them into the car.

I remember my parents buying and old 1978 Ford Fairmont specifically for this job. My mom and I would load all the newspapers in the back and begin delivering newspapers for the next few hours. Before we started our route though we would stop at a local Texaco off of 15th and Market st. in Ballard, WA and gas up, get something to drink and something to snack on. We did this every day for 3 months. The only real redeeming thing about it as that my mom would let me drive sometimes while we took turns hurling newspapers at peoples screen doors and porches.

One clear July morning around 2am, we had completed our load into the car and were heading to the local Texaco again for some Diet Cokes, Gas and munchies like we always did. It wasn't cold at all actually, I remember a warm breeze flowing through the air...I remember it being rather comfortable and tranquil.

We usually took 65th street from 24th to 15th and would take a right down onto 15th to hit Market st. Anyone who has ever been on this flat stretch of road knows exactly where it goes. If you were to continue forward on 65th you would see straight ahead of you a very large and steep incline going up a larger hill into Greenwood. If you continued down it would take you straight to Greenlake.

It was really clear that night, not a cloud in the sky. Ballard was less developed then so after 1am everything was closed down and you could see every bright star in the sky.

In fact, once we reached the intersection of 15th and 65th, we stopped at a 4 way intersection and admired the clear sky and how brilliant it really was. It was so quite you could hear a pin drop as we were the only car in that intersection at the time.

As my mom and I both gazed at the stars and admiring the beauty of the clearest of skies...there it was.

Literally out of no where, appeared a large circular object in the distance, and what I could say may have been about 400-500 feet away. It was was a perfect circle with a bright green hue to it. It was brilliant as it just hovered there. It was so large, the only thing I could describe is if you were to take a baseball and hold it up against the inside of your windshield, that's how big it was.

It sat there for maybe 5-7 seconds while my mom and I just watched, entirely speechless. It then began to travel East...first very slowly and then almost immediately very very rapidly.

I could only tell how far and quickly it traveled for one reason.

Remember that hill I told you about? The one that if you were to continue traveling East on 65th? It's a very high and steep hill and from where we were sitting it was over a mile away from us. This thing went from 0-500mph in mere nanoseconds, you could see the distance it traveled as it grew smaller and smaller as it jetted away from us in just a matter of milliseconds.

Just like that...it was gone.

I've only told a few people this story as when I initially shared this story it was met with pure skepticism and considered silly malarkey. But I know what I saw and without a doubt I knew what it was. There was no question. There were no blinking lights, no blurry weird lights in the distance. It was a clear sky lit brightly from just the moon and stars. It was in fact July, but it wasn't fireworks. There was no smoke trail and it wasn't any kind of firework I've ever seen in my lifetime.

What I saw I can only gather was a moment where I was shown proof of existence outside of our own. I don't know if they had somehow taken a wrong turn somewhere and realized they were way off course, or it was simply observing.

Does this further my belief in what I may define as God. Yes and No. It has proven to me that no, we are not alone in this universe. Does it make me believe that extra terrestrial beings will come and visit us and share their knowledge with us? No. Personally...I dont think our world in its infancy is ready for that...which is why religion today plays such a large role in this. Even if we had irrefutable proof, tangible in my hand kind of proof, would we share it? Would we want to?

Personally, I would be afraid to. I would fear the ever growing and powerful religious ramifications that would and could be inflicted upon me as a result. Our nation amongst others would see a massive religious hysteria and a possible collapse in the stability of our people. It is disheartening, but fact.

However my memory remains and all I can do is share my story. I will never forget that morning. I can't remember the names of all of my high school teachers, or the names of all the skate boarding tricks I knew at the time, but I remember that morning as clearly now as I did when I first saw it.

I've never seen one since though, and I keep looking up at the night sky every time I am stopped anywhere just hoping I can see them again.

Maybe next time, they will stop long enough so I can give them directions.