Beam Me Up

One of my favorite images is of the Earth, looking back from space. And I realize this next statement will sound strange, but I love it because I cannot see the people on the surface, which makes everything just seem peaceful.

Meanwhile, down on the surface, millions of activities are going on. Billions of people are moving, fighting, struggling, killing, building, destroying, and reshaping the surface of the globe. But from space, none of that is visible. It is just a quiet planet floating in space. 

Then, as I stare longer at the picture, I cannot help but notice that, from space, Earth looks like one giant cell – just like the ones in us, except Earth is a cell in the body of the Universe. And humans resemble that of a destructive virus, moving all over it, devouring the cell wherever opportunity exists and without regard to itself. The virus simply seeks out the next thing it can latch onto, take it over and consume it until that thing is depleted.

I often wonder what we would look like to other beings in the Universe that just happen to be cruising by the Earth in their 2014, top of the line, candy-apple red UFO, with curb feelers, a built-in navigation system, and some fuzzy dice hanging from the anal probe, looking down at us in observance. Would other beings in the Universe consider us to be a good neighbor? Would other beings even want us as a neighbor?

This is how I see things – this lovely blue planet is nothing more than a shared dwelling where all of us humans are, more or less, roommates. And in the vein of being roomies – we all share the electric, the food, the space, and even the same blanket of stars. 

There simply is not enough room upon our small domicile to live comfortably with each other as long as we act violent, angry, greedy, entitled to power, jealous, murderous, envious, and the like? I mean, would any of you actually put up with a roommate that behaved in those ways? Probably not – you may even ask them to move out because these are the most non-progressive ways in which we can live. Nothing good ever comes from such behaviors; no unity, no Utopia, no peace, no lasting prosperity, and no real understanding of what love is. And one does not have to be a psychic, a prophet or a messiah to figure that out. 

I have found myself going out at night, looking up at the stars and jokingly saying, “Okay, I’m ready for the Mothership to come and beam me up now; I’ve had enough.” But the stars just wink back at me and carry-on about their business while I let out a sigh and secretly wish people on Earth behaved all the time as they do when guests come over for a visit. That is polite, caring, generous, loving, and happy.

Still, even though we don’t see beings from elsewhere in the Universe parking on our front lawns in their 1957 rag-top flying machine for a visit; wouldn’t it be nice if, as a collective, we behaved as though we were receiving company at any moment?