blog in the round: aliens

it's the end of the world as we know it (dispatches from the Great Invasion)

in the autumn of the year 2009, it happened. what we had theorized or dreamt about was coming to pass. it seemed that visitors were coming. visitors with bad intentions. these are the journal entries from one man's experience.

dispatch #1: day 11 before the Great Invasion: could it be that maybe there are other beings alive in the vast expanse of space. other races with families and dreams and lives. i really don't know why i share this now, because nothing is pointing at that. there just seems to be an electricity in the air. it reminds me of so many of the alien movies i watched as a child. maybe it's nothing, but maybe...

dispatch #2: day 4 before the Great Invasion: if there are such beings, what are they like. if our assumptions are correct, then they are little green men (and women?) who are very advanced, much more advanced than us. this is obvious through the enormous heads and the super-cool flying machines, or space-ships. what doesn't make sense, though, is their purpose. why would a super-intelligent race of beings fly millions of miles across vast expanses of blackness so that they could stick things in the butt of uneducated redneck types? was this to learn about us? if so, why not just ask? or is it more sinister? could it be for humiliation, or just as a big intergalactic joke? i hope i never find out.

and if they are coming, how will it happen. movies seem to suggest that they would come rambo-style, with fire in their eyes (if they have eyes) and guns blazing (photon or laser guns, of course). this obviously makes a better story, or at least one with more explosions. but what if they plan to move with subtlety, and craftiness. what if, indeed, they are already among us, lying in wait until the appointed hour so that they can reveal themselves and their true mission? would we even notice? aliens already among us. i think that makes more sense. it sure would explain richard simmons.

geez, i am starting to sound like an idiot. i need a hobby.

dispatch #3:day 1 of the Great Invasion: oh. my. god. i thought that i was perhaps crazy for thinking about aliens and such, but the national news channels are reporting something that makes me think i may be right. usually, when the media reports something about unexplained phenomena, it does so with an smirk and a knowing glance. like they are saying "the purpose of this story is to make fun of gullible people. please enjoy, and feel better about yourself."

but not this time. this is different. apparently, somewhere over chicago, something is happening. something that can't be explained by anyone. and the reporters are scared. you can see it in their eyes and hear it in their shaky voices. this is uncharted territory. everything is fuzzy now, but rest assured, something crazy is going on.

more later...

dispatch #4: day 6 of the Great Invasion: the past several days have been unbelievable. it has felt like an apocalypse, or at least a movie about an apocalypse. people are panicked, and the chief reaction to everything is fear. i'm scared, that is for sure.

at first, everything was so confusing. reports of something, but no details. the news networks were all over this, and somewhere in the frenzy the tone changed from breathless conjecture to terrifying fact. it began in chicago, then L.A. and Seattle. soon, all major cities were reporting that some unknown craft was looming in the sky above them. radio frequencies were interrupted, and word on the street was that whatever it was, it was not from here, and it wanted to do us harm. i myself do not live in a large city, so i have seen nothing but what i have been told, but how long before it is my city? it is coming. our government has already told us that. soon we will be engaged in the biggest fight for our survival and way of life that we have ever been up against. indeed, more than we can even imagine. and we must be ready. already me neighbors have been stockpiling weapons and food, sure that it is coming, and driven to make sure that they and their family make it through. i guess i should do the same. but if it is as bad as they say it will be, it will not matter...

a friend of mine said her mother lived near someone who saw one of the beings. so far, they have not shown their faces, but if this is true, how long until we all see them?

dispatch #5: day 14 of the Great Invasion: waiting to die. that is what this feels like. fear is still high, but is starting to give way to numbness and resignation. despair. everyone is so sure that the end is near. but i am beginning to wonder...

last night i met one of them. i remember drifting off to sleep, clutching my old Louisville Slugger baseball bat, not because i thought i could beat a race of super-intelligent extra-terrestrials with a bat, but because it makes me feel safe. anyway, about 2:30, i awoke suddenly. i felt a presence in my house, but was unsure what to make of it. it definitely felt real, but not in the way that scraping your knee or hugging your wife feels real. it was more like how it feels to have one of those dreams that feel real.

i don't recall all of the details of what it looked like, and in fact, i feel sure that i couldn't even make out anything more that the outline of its body. surprisingly enough, it looked just like the other ones that had been reported. for some reason, though, i felt confident enough to approach it, and even as i looked it in the face, i could not make out what it looked like. the only other sense that seemed to be working was sound, for i distinctly remember the deafening silence. it was silence that seemed to scream out at me, until it was broken with the voice of this being. i half expected it to speak in an unintelligible tongue, or a series of bleeps and blorps, but it was as clear and articulate (and surprisingly, in english) as anything i have ever heard.

"do not be afraid."


dispatch #6: day 16 of the Great Invasion: the events of the past few days have really got me wondering. besides the still constant media coverage and the "visitation" that i had, i really don't know what is going on. every report is nothing but conjecture, just a guess it seems of how bad things might be and how evil they are. but nothing concrete. nothing proven. i am beginning to wonder if we are freaked out over nothing. maybe they aren't evil. maybe the end of the world is not coming. what if we are wrong, and all this fear is worth nothing. because it is the fear that is the worst part. the not-knowing. the distrust. and the chaos that is gripping every city and town. everywhere you go is like a war-zone. it is truly terrifying, but i am starting to wonder what it is we should be most afraid of.


dispatch #7: day 20 of the Great Invasion: things are really strange now. there are others who have been asking questions too. the news still shows the same images, and they still insist that an attack is imminent, that they are merely staging for an all-out assault. but many are wondering if we should be worried. if maybe they are not hostile. if they even exist...

the word is that the ones who have been vocal have received visits. not from aliens, mind you. from government officials. not sure why. maybe they are on to something...


dispatch #8: day 26 of the Great Invasion: i never thought that things would turn out like they have. mind you, the thought of an invasion was strange enough. the reaction of people was not unexpected, but still devastating. the government's iron hand of control. the religious people's declaration of judgment. the fear and the hate that bubbled up everywhere. but to find out now that it was all a lie...

the news was fabricated. the reactions were real, but were based on a manufactured threat. the fear was the point. because if people are gripped by fear, they will believe, and do, almost anything. and so this was the wool pulled over our eyes to make us fear, and therefore not question their motives. was it the government? partly. but it was also leaders in business and religion and just about every human enterprise. it is they who looked to gain, but it is the weak who have suffered.

and everything has changed. not for the reason we thought at first, but because people have seen the truth. and now, where fear reigned, now freedom and independence rise up. and hope.

and hope will always trump fear.