Since time began humans have looked up to the heavens and wondered. Wondered what those shinny white points of light were that they could only see at night. We wondered if there were other forms of life out there in the vastness of space. Skip ahead thousands of years, and we were still wondering. We were curious enough around the world, that in the modern age we became engaged in what was to be called a “space race” with rival countries to see who could build rockets fast enough and strong enough to take us humans into space first. And of course in 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon, stirring the imagination of humanity, that we would someday live and travel further into space. Well since that fateful day in the Sea of Tranquility, we have been eager to continue our quest to conquer space. Lofty goals are planned, even now to someday put a space station on the Moon as a stopping point, on our way to eventually head on over to Mars! Could it really happen? With enough time, ingenuity and of course money, I believe it will happen probably sooner rather than later. There are certainly enough world space agencies like our NASA, along with enough private companies now willing to spend the money and “brainpower” to make it happen. However, as our goals of conquering space continue to broaden, I look around and feel like we are, in some odd way, conquering ourselves into some sort of weird submission. Instead of thriving, sometimes my skepticism makes it feel like we are merely surviving. Our society at times feels more like “Planet of The Apes,” rather than a society living in the 21st century, ready to move on to distance planets. I don’t think we are quite ready to take our “circus” of humanity traveling just yet for other worlds to see. We can’t even have a couple hundred people on an airplane these days without somebody physically fighting with the flight crew because they are denied a gin and tonic before takeoff! Or causing a ruckus because they were asked to use the lavatory closest to their seat! Seriously? We’re working on spacecraft powerful enough to move us into orbits of other planets, when almost weekly, we see in the news, that we still haven’t quite “mastered” train rail technology that was created literally hundreds of years ago! It seems like train derailments in our country are now en vogue and happening at an alarming rate. It doesn’t really matter to me how or why it’s happening, but the point is, after hundreds of years, we should have this technology “down” by now. Lack of food and clean drinking water seems to still be a big issue around the world, and with a hungry global population that continues to grow at (last count) 2.6 people per second, I’m not seeing any solutions happening for all these new Earthlings anytime soon. And don’t even get me started with some of the things we do globally to our oceans! Hmmm…war still seems to be bit of a sticking point to the inhabitants in our world. With either ongoing wars, or certainly the threat of war by countries around the globe still staring millions of people in the face on a daily basis, I am not so sure beings living on other planets are quite ready for our brand of existence. Taking our show on the “interplanetary road” doesn’t quite seem like the right thing to do just yet. I believe humanity still needs a little more time in the oven to cook before we go knocking on our extraterrestrial neighbors’ door to “tell them the good news.” Don’t get me wrong, I find the idea of space exploration as exciting as the next nerd, and images we see from the James Webb Telescope are indeed mind blowing. Yes, “the truth is out there,” and there are things flying around that we have yet to fully understand, and absolutely, Captain, James T. Kirk may have been correct with his declaration of “space (being) the final frontier,” but maybe... just not for us…not yet anyway.
Thank you for reading and I’ll see you in the groves.
Farmer Tony
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