My Personal Side

By Craig Hastings

You may know this about me if you read this column very often. I’m a fan of the series “Ancient Aliens.”  Even if you don’t believe in visitors from space the program is a wealth of world history information.  There’s probably six or seven “regulars” offering up their world experiences and insight of what we are seeing might mean or have meant thousands of years ago.  If  for no other reason to tune in, anyone should enjoy the world archaeology presented each week.  I’ve watched the same episodes three and four times.  Before he passed away a couple of years ago, my very good friend Doug and I used to watch these episodes religiously and sometimes were on the phone with each other talking about what we just saw on a particular episode.  I was skeptical, a disbeliever of sorts, of the whole aliens among us theory ten years ago.  Doug was just the opposite.  I can remember Doug talking about the moon and stars way back in the 80’s and 90’s when we were running around clubbing together and almost always, if the night sky was clear, he would talk about space.  Me, back then all I wanted to do was get home and go to bed.

Back then there weren’t many programs on TV that dared to venture into the possibility and probability that alien life once visited earth.  I think back then a person was considered a whack-a-do if that person let anyone know that they were a believer.  I was probably one of those disbelievers but did leave the door open for proof.  I was quick to discredit, the best I could, any theory that aliens existed.  I’ll admit that part of my disbelief was because I was scared to believe there was life anywhere but right here on earth.  Not Doug!  Oh no, he was a believer.  I used to chuckle inside listening to him talk about alien life.  He would always offer up a comical twist to the notion of course.

I was a loner with my thoughts of the whole alien conversation after Doug was gone.  Both of my sons, Payton and Lukas, used to get a kick out of listening to me talk about past alien visitors.  Yes, that means they laughed at me.  I needed someone to share what I had just learned from the most recent episodes of Ancient Aliens so they were my captive audience.  They have both moved out so they no longer have to endure my ramblings about aliens and UFOs moving around on earth.  Now who could I share all of this alien knowledge with that I’ve learned from the Ancient Alien series?  I have found one other person now that I share my thoughts and opinions with.  There just isn’t a big fan base for the show here in Tuscola.  I guess that makes me the odd man out.  It makes no difference, I’m still a faithful viewer of the series which has recently started over with all new episodes.

Good News!  Over the past two years, and because the Ancient Aliens series has become so popular (profitable through businesses wanting to air their commercials during the program) several other program series have entered the fray.  These newest programs don’t exclusively concentrate on the alien phenomena but they definitely lean that way.  The federal government releasing video footage of two recent Navy fighter planes shadowing two different UFOs has certainly sparked more interest too.  So I’ve been having a lot of fun over the years with this and feel like I’ve learned a lot about the earth’s history through these programs.  However tonight it’s all taking a new twist.

I watched a show tonight about asteroids and how they may have affected not only the geography of earth but also life itself.  I didn’t know that bacteria travel for hundreds of thousands of years and miles on asteroids and actually survive impacts on earth and other planets.  These bacteria are believed by some scientists to be how life itself started on earth millions of years ago.  Okay, I can grasp that they survive but I’m skeptical that these are how we may have become the creatures we are.  I’m still going with maybe the alien theory.  The program went on to talk about how humans will need to find a new planet to move to and populate because earth will again one day be struck by another asteroid wiping out all living creatures.  These scientists were very specific and firm in their belief that this event isn’t a possibility but will absolutely happen one day!  Okay now this scares me.  Even though it’s not likely in my lifetime it still scares me because in all probability and I hope, my family bloodline will continue on into the future.  Elon Musk is on a mission to colonize Mars over the next ten years.  Other scientists also agree that Mars is the best bet for us in our future to survive.

You know, I was having fun with the whole alien possibility thing going on over the past ten years but, this asteroid hitting earth and wiping us out has me wishing I never looked up at the moon and the stars now and just kept my head buried in the sand where my thoughts about simple earth were safe.  Oh well, the best minds in the world say it’s inevitable so wake up and live each day to its fullest just in case they’re right!