A number of years ago, I attended a meeting of a local metaphysical society in which the presenter of the month talked about extraterrestrial life and preparation for the future.
The speaker prefaced the talk with a quote from Arthur C. Clarke: “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” What an immense thing to ponder. The expanse which is our universe…what might exist beyond our universe…the magnitude of that realization!
In the current trying times, that presentation has returned to mind in a frightening way. Elements that were discussed included the entertainment media and preparation for events to come. The speaker alluded to films that featured space travel, UFOs, and the like. Essentially, the message was that events of the future were somehow foreshadowed by books and films to get us ready for the changes. Recent trends in movies (superheroes, galaxies, horror films, apocalypse films), if the speaker’s premise were true, signify a bleak outlook. Such movies tends to bother me tremendously, so I avoid most of them. And so I am not ready. Not ready for a dismal future. Not prepared for the nightmare of today.
The age-old question — does art imitate life, or does life imitate art? And even bigger questions — how did we get here, why are we here, and what is happening? Are we being taken over? If so, by whom or by what? We tend to humanize our visions of other beings. But there are a myriad life forms, and we can’t fathom them all. Per Wikipedia, “stromatolites or stromatoliths (from Greek στρῶμα strōma “layer, stratum” (GEN στρώματος strōmatos), and λίθος lithos “rock”) are layered mounds, columns, and sheet-like sedimentary rocks that were originally formed by the growth of layer upon layer of cyanobacteria, a single-celled photosynthesizing microbe”. A recent television program cited stromatolite found in reefs off Australia as the first form of life on our planet. Stromatolite is now basically sedimentary rock.
We are limited to the knowledge that is available to us. But we are learning and discovering additional information every day. Even as we begin to know the unknown, there is still the greater unknown.
I might not want to know… Or I might want to hold my faith that, yes, there is something bigger; and, yes, it is a good something. If movies can script our future, so can we ourselves. So gather strength and faith and charge forward with positive thoughts, noble intent, love, kindness, and courage. We need to shape a better world. (And in the meantime, I may want to make friends with the chunk of stromatolite on my nightstand.)