Alien Planet
A few weeks ago I visited my brother in Phoenix. The flight arrived about two hours after dark and my brother met me at the end of the concourse. No problems on the flight, none on the pickup.
As we were driving to his house, I noted the all the lights and all the motion; lights from the buildings, lights from the cars and lights from the airplanes hanging in the sky; Motion: we were moving fast, hundreds of cars were moving fast; below us on underpasses, above us on overpasses and above all that, jets roaring in from beyond the horizon. All the motion, all the noise, all the lights and no people to be seen.
For the one and only time since my return from the Congo did I feel disoriented and it occurred to me why. This is where all the aliens are and this is how they live.
A few months ago, I wrote how the Congo seemed to be a place where a race of aliens came one day, built a civilization and then vanished. The remains of that civilization can be seen slowly decaying all over the county. The people in the Congo don't seem to know exactly what to do with it so it is slowly disappearing. You can't help but wonder, illogically, what that vanished race could do.
When we were driving through nighttime Phoenix, I saw what they could do and it was, for a few minutes, a wide-eyed awe inspiring thing.
I am pretty lucky, because of the time I have spent Africa, I got to see the Phoenix through the eyes of a man from the past. It was almost like seeing the future.
As we were driving to his house, I noted the all the lights and all the motion; lights from the buildings, lights from the cars and lights from the airplanes hanging in the sky; Motion: we were moving fast, hundreds of cars were moving fast; below us on underpasses, above us on overpasses and above all that, jets roaring in from beyond the horizon. All the motion, all the noise, all the lights and no people to be seen.
For the one and only time since my return from the Congo did I feel disoriented and it occurred to me why. This is where all the aliens are and this is how they live.
A few months ago, I wrote how the Congo seemed to be a place where a race of aliens came one day, built a civilization and then vanished. The remains of that civilization can be seen slowly decaying all over the county. The people in the Congo don't seem to know exactly what to do with it so it is slowly disappearing. You can't help but wonder, illogically, what that vanished race could do.
When we were driving through nighttime Phoenix, I saw what they could do and it was, for a few minutes, a wide-eyed awe inspiring thing.
I am pretty lucky, because of the time I have spent Africa, I got to see the Phoenix through the eyes of a man from the past. It was almost like seeing the future.
posted by Carl at 9:23 PM
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