Alotta Monkey Business

The Truth is Out There; Somewhere. (WC 569, R-E)

P17. UFOs - what's the truth in your opinion? Have you ever seen one?

Of course, UFO's exist. But what is a UFO? if it flies and it's unidentified, it's a UFO. It doesn't have to come from space, and it doesn't have to have extraterrestrial associations, it is just something flying that is not identified.

Not that a UFO couldn't be from another world, anything is possible. But, if another civilization has developed the ability to travel faster than light, I think they could observe us quite well from a safe distance without being seen. Even more importantly, why would they want to visit us?

We can't even get along with our own kind, so what would lure highly advanced travelers to fly to our planet? And, if they did want to travel light years to visit us, why wouldn't they make contact so they can visit us? To me, it would be like driving over a thousand miles to see a city, and just driving through without stopping. So no, I don't think we have aliens from other worlds doing fly-bys.

That being said, I have to admit that I have, on a few occasions, witnessed UFOs. The first time was as a young teen. We lived in a small town on the Mesabi Iron Range of Minnesota, and being the introvert I still am, I spent a lot of time exploring the country and old mines around us. On one such occasion, my brother was with me and we had spent the afternoon exploring some old mining roads. It was getting late and we were hurrying home, knowing we had likely missed supper and were in trouble.

As we climbed an old ore dump, we stopped to rest for a few minutes and saw a bright red orb fly overhead. It moved quickly, and at first, we thought it was a shooting star. But, it didn't fly straight, it curved and formed a sort of "S" pattern, then stopped in mid-flight, reversed, and returned the way it had come, soon vanishing over the southern horizon.

We, being kids, were a bit scared and a bit panicky. I mean, what if it came back and abducted us? We rushed home and into the house out of breath to find my parents sitting very silently in the kitchen. Instead of the normal butt-chewing, however, we got hugs from our mom and dad. After a few minutes, they informed us that my grandmother had called to say grandpa had just passed away a few minutes earlier in the hospital; about the same time we saw the UFO!

Another time, I had just got home during a very bad storm. We lived in a trailer and the tornado sirens were going off, it was raining very hard, and the wind was picking up to gale force. I could barely walk against the force of the wind and all sorts of debris was flying past. I heard a whistling sound overhead and when I looked up, something flew over that spinning or so it seemed. It was difficult to see with the rain but it barely passed above the bowing trees.

After the storm had passed, my UFO turned out to be a porta-potty that had made an emergency landing just across the highway... Oh, and it was unmanned!

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"Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J.