ALL STAR GAME 2022

The world is filled with delusional, mentally ill, and/or easily susceptible human beings who see and hear ghosts, Bigfoot, aliens, Men in Black, angels, demons, etc.  However, if the universe is infinite, then it seems sheer hubris to assert that this is the only galaxy and planet supporting life.  Moreover, it is even more grandiose to assume we are also the pinnacle of that life regarding technology and intelligence.  

I have never seen a molecule or an atom, much less a quark or neutrino.  And, I cannot discount everything I have not personally witnessed as proof or assurance of non-existence.  When functionally sound individuals who are not historically prone to fantasy or to mendacity assert they have witnessed the unexplained, I cannot easily dismiss them out of hand either.  When constitutionally sober individuals in the roles of pilots, astronauts, surgeons, presidents, CEOs, farmers, and entire communities witness phenomena that defy explanation and sometimes physics/gravity, who am I to categorically reject their testimony.  

As for blurry images, I have tried to take a photo of Greta fake-attacking my cat Boo-Boo.  It is fricking hilarious, but by the time I grab my iPhone, click on the icon for pictures or recording, have them in the view finder and click the button, it's already over.  And, I have seen the two of them everyday in the confines of my own home since 2014.  It took me years to get a great photograph of a hummingbird, and I had those bright sugar-feeders out for a decade.  

Has anyone ever tried to get a picture of a car wreck in the moment it was happening?  It used to be thought by newsmen and reporters to be impossible, until the ubiquitousness of perpetually live video cameras specifically aimed at highways and roads.  YouTube is full of them, but what about a single car accident on a dirt road?  

Reportedly, my father and mother witnessed something before I was born, when my oldest brother was about junior high age.  I did not find out about this until after my father's death.  Now, I can count on two fingers the times I attended a movie theater with my dad.  The second was in the summer of 1975.  My father just bought one of those little Toyota trucks, in attempt to offset the "outrageous" gas prices that rose above 50 cents.   After driving off the lot, he turned the wrong way to go home from Lafayette, Louisiana, and drove to Center Cinema in the Oil Center.  On the marquis was the title "Jaws."  I will never forget my excitement.  Now, that was about as likely as seeing an alien craft!  With sheer incredulousness, I asked my father, "We're going to see Jaws?"  He replied matter of factly, "People have said it's worth the money."

The first instance I had just turned five years old.  My father took me with with him to see "Chariots of the Gods."  Now, my father only watched the national and local news and on Sundays "60 Minutes." Occasionally an episode of Sanford and Son.  Nothing else.  No movies, no sitcoms, no dramas.  Nothing.  I remember wondering why we were watching this movie (a documentary?), and I distinctly remember how absolutely fixated on the screen my father was during the film.  I had never seen him so engrossed in something other than gardening, farming, paying bills, and occasionally duck hunting.

The memory of my father glued to that movie screen came racing back into my head when my brother told me that my father and mother had seen a "flying saucer."  The story is that my father came racing home from the rice fields, picked up my mother, left the kids in the house, and took my mother with him. Several minutes later, they both returned home.  It was never discussed, never mentioned to others outside of that day.  And, the actual testimony died with them.  

It must have been cognitive dissonance that prevented my father from ever telling me that story.  And, why was this never told to me until I was 46 years old? My father was a science teacher and a farmer who majored in agriculture in college.  He was a child of The Great Depression and fought in WWII.  There was nothing silly or humorous in my father's demeanor or disposition - as is nearly perpetually in mine - even during drunken wedding receptions.  I wish I had gotten to ask him about the experience.  

My sister and my niece tell me that they have seen a ghost.  My sister is super-impressionable, so I really doubt her.  My niece was supposedly with a group of friends in New Orleans, when they saw the ghostly figure of a woman in 19th century clothing cross the street.  When I remarked that could have been an actress dressed in a period piece or someone coming home late from a themed party.  My niece replied that the figure did not touch the ground and appeared to have no visible feet.  

Alas, I have never seen or heard anything remotely unreal or supernatural in my life.  Unless we include a continuing string of bad luck I cannot explain.