The Truth Is Out There

There's a minor episode in my life that is due to be retold.  It's something I have related in the past amidst great ridicule and mocking, though I feel compelled to relate the story once again.  It's a common anecdote these days, something that many other people have also experienced.

It was late October 1995.  I was fifteen, and taking a short walk around the flooded gravel pit near my home.  It was late afternoon, maybe an hour before sunset, and the handful of clouds in the western sky were turning bright pink, as is sometimes the case for our beautiful evening skies around here.  While there were quite a few of the colored clouds behind me in the west, the east was completely clear, except for a single pink dot.  As I walked along, I slowed down and glanced at that speck in the sky as it grew larger, drifting closer.  After about thirty seconds, it came close enough for me to see its true nature.  Hovering several miles away was the unmistakable form of a flying saucer.

(I will now pause a moment so the idiots out there can laugh, and the close-minded skeptics can stop reading and shove their heads back in the sand.)

As I was saying, this object I witnessed was very typical of the disk-like UFOs that have been reported for decades, possibly centuries.  It was slightly domed above and underneath, and across its mid-section were symmetrical square panels with a round dot in the center of each (presumably lights).  The object hovered there in plain sight for about a minute, and then sped away so fast it looked as if it rippled away.

That's it.  There was no "lost time," no "abduction," and I've never seen the mysterious, unidentified craft again.  It was a single, fascinating experience.

Of course, my peers at school were less than enlightened back then, and when I foolishly shared the story with some of them, they just mocked me as they often did.  A few of the Native American kids seemed more accepting of my story, though they may have just been patronizing me.  Despite the ridicule, I felt then, as I do now, that it was something I had to share, because it was the truth.

A few lingering skeptics will now accuse me of having had a drug-induced vision, or something of that nature, so I'll point out that I have never, ever taken drugs.  I've never smoked pot, never done LSD or any other mind-altering substances, and I was completely sober and clear-headed at the time of this experience.  And I've never had hallucinations or other psychotic episodes in my life, either.  This was as real as it gets, and not a figment of my imagination.

I do not make any definitive conclusions about this mysterious object I saw in the sky.  However, having seen this flying saucer for myself allows me to be more open to the possibilities.  I do not require "faith" to believe in the presence of this sort of craft, for I have firsthand knowledge that it exists, whatever it may be.  I know what it looks like, and I know how it moves through the air, which is contrary to our current knowledge of aerodynamics.  That is the extent of my personal knowledge.

I share this experience for several reasons.  One is because the truth should be told, regardless of how it is received.  Another is that there are plenty of other people out there who have had similar sightings, and they should not be afraid to come forward.  You're not insane if you see something that others refuse to believe in.  Those who want to think the Earth is flat and that the sun revolves around it will continue to do so, but that doesn't make them right in their assessment.  The more people who admit what they have actually seen and come forward, the less stigma there will be to speaking the truth, and the sooner we'll get some real answers.

In conclusion, this has been 100% serious and truthful.  There is no punchline, and this isn't an example of my storytelling ability.  The fact that I write Science Fiction is entirely beside the point.