THIS TIME, THERE REALLY WAS SOMETHING OUT THERE!

 

I mentioned in a previous post that as a kid, I thought I saw a UFO and it turned out to be nothing more than the moon reflecting off a hog feeder in our barnyard. But there was another night, years later, when I really DID see SOMETHING …

I realize there are many out there who are skeptical. I can’t offer any proof. I have zero evidence to back up what I am about to tell you. So, it is up to you to choose to believe me or not.

Okay, here we go.

It was in the spring of 1977. Marsha and I had recently moved back to Southern Illinois after having lived and worked in Appleton, Wisconsin for a couple of years. While we were looking for a house to buy, we were temporarily living in a house trailer that was parked at the northeastern corner of our family farm near Sumner.

One of the nice things about living there was that there was a farm pond only a few yards away from our front door. Growing up there on the farm, I had spent many hours fishing, gigging frogs, and swimming in that pond. It was a great way for my friends and myself to cool off after a long hard day of baling hay. Marsha and I frequently spent evenings casting for bass and bluegill to fry in the pan for breakfast the next morning.

This one particular evening, it was well past dark, and the night was very calm, almost eerily quiet. The water was smooth as glass. No wind. Not even the hint of a breeze. No sound of passing trains, nor traffic on the highway which was less than half a mile south of us. As I was casting my bait out toward the center of the pond, I noticed in the corner of my eye, a bright light not far away, just to the east of us. For those of you who are from Sumner, it would have been just a bit southeast of where our neighbors, the Roarks lived. Maybe three hundred yards north of US Highway 50. It was just sitting there. No movement. No sound.

Now, without knowing how far away it was, I can’t accurately say how big it was, nor vice versa. I guessed it to be about two hundred feet above the ground, maybe three hundred yards away. The light appeared to be very similar to a landing light on an aircraft.

Marsha and I briefly talked about it, wondering what it was. My first thought was that it was a helicopter, hovering in place. But there was no sound of rotor blades beating in the air. Then I thought maybe it was a really bright star. But that didn’t seem likely. If it was a star, we surely would have seen something like that before. I actually thought, but didn’t say anything about it, that it appeared to be a lot like I always imagined the Star of Bethlehem would have looked. We finally just figured it was just another “one of those things” you never know the answer to.

A few minutes of ignoring it passed, during which we focused on trying to catch the next day’s breakfast. Then, again, in the corner of my eye, I detected the light had begun to move. At that same instant, Marsha said, “It’s moving!”

So, any thoughts I’d entertained about it being a star were eliminated. We watched as the light moved silently from east to west, eventually stopping about two hundred yards from us, directly over our family farm, just north of where my parents lived. Again, it hovered.

I felt no fear. More curiosity than anything. Was this some new secret military aircraft? Maybe a helicopter that could run silently? Why run with a bright light on? That would certainly ruin the secret.

Then, suddenly, it shot up vertically, at a phenomenal rate of speed. Faster than anything I’d ever seen. Faster than anything I’d ever imagined possible. In two seconds, it was gone.

I thought briefly that I should report it to the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department. But then, I thought, “Report what?” All I could really say with any certainty was that we had seed a light. And it seemed to have awesome performance. Oh, and it was gone, so just take my word for it. Did it come from another planet in another galaxy. Or, was it man-made? If so, was it one of ours? Whatever it was, and wherever it came from, it was long gone.

I didn’t tell my father about it because I knew he would ridicule me.

Finally, decades later, I did tell Dad. And I was right. He did ridicule me.

I loved my dad very much, respected him. A lot. But I would have liked for us to have had a slightly different relationship. One where I could talk with him about such things without fear of being ridiculed. Where I could ask him for advice without fear of judgment or blame. One where I didn’t have to worry about being found guilty by association every time someone my age did something he didn’t approve of.

Years later, I posted an account of this UFO sighting on Facebook. To my surprise, my cousin, Debbie (Christy) Weger commented that they had seen something exactly as I had described, in the same location. Whether or not it was the same night, we have no way of knowing. I don’t even remember the date. It didn’t seem important at the time.

I make no claim to know what I saw, or where it came from. I do feel somehow blessed to have seen it, to have opened my mind to the many possibilities. To the infinite number of questions that are presented to us each time we look up into the night sky.

Are we alone in the Universe? Are we, here on planet Earth, the only life forms anywhere? Seems unlikely to me.

If you believe in God, the Divine Creator, I ask you, does it make any sense that He would create this vast universe and only put life in one tiny, remote location?

And if you do not believe in God, or have your doubts, I ask you, does it make any sense that if we are here as a result of a number of random, chaotic events which have occurred over the course of millions, maybe billions of years, that this is the one and only place where life could have formed?

None of what I say here proves anything. We can each believe and explain it away however we choose. I for one think that nothing is impossible.

At the same time, I think that none of the above are possible. Let me explain. If the Universe essentially created itself from a Big Bang, where did that little speck that exploded and made everything come from? How did it create itself, and then go on to create everything? To me that seems illogical. Impossible. And if God did in fact create everything, where did God come from? How did God create Himself and then go on to create everything? To me that seems equally illogical. Impossible. And it can’t all be a dream, because, as the saying goes, I think, therefore, I am.

I often wonder, if the time ever comes that we have proof positive that there is intelligent life out there, how would we react? What would be the response of various governments on Earth? Would the facts be hidden from the masses? Are the facts already being hidden from the masses? You don’t need to look too deeply into the incident in Roswell, New Mexico back in the 1940’s to at least be suspicious. Soon after, we made giant leaps in technology. Was that purely organic, or was it a result of studying alien technology that was retrieved after the Roswell crash?

How would religious leaders spin it, if there were advanced civilizations of beings that were not at least nearly identical to us? Would we still be God’s chosen ones? Would we be expected to believe the advanced civilizations, with their superior technology, to somehow be inferior to us?

How could we possibly peacefully coexist? Would we not, by virtue of discovery of other planets capable of sustaining and nurturing life, be compelled to amp up our own missions of discovery and conquest? Would we be fighting to conquer other, perhaps less advanced civilizations? Competing with other advanced civilizations for those planets, or for others that might as of yet be unclaimed?

What are the moral implications of all this?

Are we better off not knowing? Wouldn’t it at least be prudent to make some sort of attempt to fortify ourselves against an attack that may or may never happen, orchestrated by beings that may or may not exist? And, not knowing what we would be up against, how exactly would we do that?

I wouldn’t say that these questions keep me up at night. I have plenty other things that are capable of doing that. But I do enjoy sitting out on my deck at night, looking up into that big Colorado sky, and wondering …

What do you think?