Sunday September 8th, 2013

The exercise:

Write about: the universe.

We hosted our third annual farm BBQ this evening, with an excellent turnout of around 35 people (though that number includes quite a few children). It was a lot of fun, especially once the actual cooking was finished and I could sit down to eat and talk.

The weather was pretty much perfect for it, as we had blue skies, sunshine, and temperatures that peaked in the high twenties. Glad to have all that work and preparation behind us for another year though.

Plus in the middle of all that chaos I found out that someone bought one of the 8x10 prints I had hanging for sale at the bakery here in town. That's a first for me and totally made my night - whenever I had the time and space to think about it.

Mine:

On a night like this, when clouds are a distant memory and the stars look down upon us with no competition from city lights, I find it impossible to avoid returning their gaze. The earth invites me to join it and I do so, hands folded behind my head.

Together we contemplate the vast, sparkling and dark universe before us. There may be no proof that life like ours exists on other planets, but I cannot imagine how that could be the case. Not on a night like the one I find myself surrounded by right now.

It is too large for us to be the only intelligent life within it. And besides, we're not all that smart anyway.

I like to think, in my darker moments, that all the other beings out there, wherever they may be, know enough to avoid being detected by our searching scientists. That they have no interest in dealing with Earth and our nonsense.

Perhaps we really are alone, though. Maybe there is no one looking back at me as I stare up into this perfect night sky. These twinkling stars are as empty as our televisions.

I find that thought deeply unsettling, for it means I have no hope of escaping this place.