Who Dad?!

Puzzling

I was right about yesterday's weather. It didn't get as blistering hot. And, when the late afternoon monsoon rolled in, it was from the southwest in familiar dark swaths. Somehow, the normal switch was flipped back on. I felt relieved.

Watching the sky while half-listening to the PBS News Hour, a piece on UFOs caught my attention. It was a clip of a former intelligence officer testifying in Congress that the Pentagon was hiding evidence of extraterrestrials. One commentator suggested it was pride at play. They don't want to talk about what they don't understand. I guess I get that, but I just don't think human nature would allow so many to keep such secrets for so long.

But then, a reference was made to the Roman historian known as Livy who wrote about seeing "phantom ships gleaming in the sky" in 214 B.C. That got me more curious. I looked up other ancient sightings. Most dubious was Alexander the Great seeing "gleaming silver shields overhead" in 329 B.C. Scholars never produced the original source material for that; however, Plutarch in 74 B.C. reported in detail about a strange sighting witnessed by two armies "on the point of joining battle, with no apparent change of weather . . . the sky burst asunder, and a huge flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape, it was most like a wine-jar, and in color, like molten silver. Both sides were astonished at the sight, and separated."

Wow! What do you think that was? Some kind of intervention? Nothing was said about a crash site, but I didn't pursue it. I'm curious, but skeptical. What life forms (and with what technology) could possibly traverse the great distances between star systems?

Although, one expression from the Congressional testimony stayed with me: "non-human biologics were retrieved from crash sites". Well, let's hope our diligent elected officials get to the truth of that!

With the rain stopped, the sky coloring from the setting sun, I noticed a nearly full golden moon rising over the Rincon Mountains. It was magnificent. I talked Susan into a short walk just to take it all in. 

For some reason, I wanted to visit a particular tree we now know as a Monkey Puzzle, but for a long time could not identify until David Yetman did it for us on an episode of In the Americas.

Turned out they've been around 200 million years, still growing in ways to discourage dinosaurs. And, this aloof Monkey Puzzle tree can be quite patient. It won't even reveal its sexual preference until 30-40 years old. "Surprise! I'm ready now if you are." And then they can get quite busy . . . in the way of trees.

Like so many living things, they're endangered now, but an individual tree can live a thousand years. They are, in a sense, living fossils that have survived extinction from fire and ice. Seems like we could learn something from them.

While visiting this ancient survivor, this Monkey Puzzle teacher, Susan and I talked about UFOs. She, ever the scientist, was doubtful due to the lack of evidence but open to the possibility that some other beings had figured out what we have not.

 And, I started to imagine a story of an alien stranded on Earth.

"In a remote part of South America, where Monkey Puzzle trees have existed for millions of years, there is still a tribe that has had almost no contact with the modern world. And, in that tribe, there is one very old being, who according to legend, is sometimes female, sometimes male.

He/she does not do much, has forgotten who she/he is, but is revered by the tribe because he/she has always been there, is as old as the Monkey Puzzle trees. And so, they care for him, bringing her food and drink and entertainment in music, dance, and song."