Dialogue with a Beautiful Alien

I met an alien from a perfect world. She was very beautiful... for an alien. Actually, beautiful period, but that's beside the point; when I met her, I thought I'd ask her all those questions that I've always wanted answered. But she told me I needed to just talk instead. I said, "What about?"

She answered, "The human experience." Wow.

So, it went somethin like this:

"Um... I don't know if I can speak for all humanity; we're very diverse. Actually, I guess I can start there. No matter where in our world you are, you're different than everybody else starting off. Different beliefs, different challenges, different environments. Some of our differences are stupid though. Like, where I'm from you're born into a race, pretty much based on your skin color (it's much more about color than ethnicity, meaning from where you're actually descended). Depending on what color you are, your life could be considerably easier or considerably more difficult. At least to me. It's more difficult for someone like me.

It's crazy because, when we're children, we act like we got some sense; no color lines, no hate. But the smarter we get, the dumber we get. Understand?"

"I... think so."

"If you don't, you will. Trust me.

I could talk about religions and things; I ascribe to a particular one myself, Christianity. But the truth is, religions are much more talked about than acted upon; that's across the board, but especially in mine. Which is one way I know it's the right one, believe it or not...

Anyway, generally humanity abides by rules that allow one human to have a sufficient level of freedom without infringing upon the rights of another. Did I lose ya?"

"Not at all."

"Good deal. Here's where things get a little more complicated. Those rules hafta be created by somebody; there's too many people for everyone to have a say. So, there are governments set up to do the 'saying' for the people. Just like religions, there are soooo many different types of government. Some rule the people with an iron fist; some actually let the people have a 'say' in who 'says'.

Really, I don't care about any of it. I've reached this conclusion; there's only two types of government really: governments of the people and governments of the economy. Some governments seem to believe their countries are firstly money, secondly lives. I think I live in one of those countries, even though it professes so much else. Deception, verbatim, rhetoric... heh; that's another thing about humanity. Right now my country is expending lives at war for capital. But it's not expending capital for lives at home."

"Hm... this is all interesting, but take me closer to home."

"Sure, I live right around..."

"No. I mean, for instance, what do you do?"

"What do I do? I'm a student."

"A student."

"Yup. Actually, I'm a musician and a freelance writer. But... I can't do anything with those until I get a diploma. At least, not without a hell of an effort and several strokes of luck. ...Actually, I'm not even getting a diploma in those areas; it's in history."

"That doesn't make sense. Why history if you're not interested?"

"I am interested... kinda. Because I want to make my world better, I study how it got so screwed up in the first place. That and... The important thing is, I'm doing it because my region is starving for teachers, and history is something that I can teach to make a solid living."

"Economics."

"Exactly. It's like a trap; I can't expand without compromising my time and energy just to break even, ya know? And here's the worst part; in our society, most people work to make other people rich. Nobody gets paid what their worth; barely anyone does what they feel is their calling; nobody's satisfied. Unless they're rich of course; money seems to make everybody happy."

"All right. A little closer to home now. Tell me about the human family."

"Okay. Basically, you have the mother, (the female), father (the male), and children (the offspring). At least, that's how it occurs naturally. In recent years, mankind has gotten creative, so there's exceptions to what's natural. Right, wrong... relative. It doesn't sit well with me because of my belief, but there's a lot of things that don't sit well with me and my belief. Our families as a whole, traditional or nontraditional, are disintegrating."

"That's so sad. Why?"

"I can't speak for the whole world, but I can speak for my country. For one, fathers are being taken out of the home, and, though most don't know it, fathers are the cornerstones of the family. It happens in so many ways... Industrial work took them away, wars took them away, welfare took them away, divorce took them away, cowardice took them away, death took them away. No matter how it happens, it's the same thing; the mother is left to be mother and father; the children are missing a key component in their lives. But they'll live; they'll live to perpetuate the cycle and multiply it as it goes 'round."

"Mmm..."

"That's the root of most of our problems: the breakdown of the family."

"You haven't mentioned your family yet."

"Oh, I have a huge family on both my mother's and father's sides; plenty of cousins and uncles and aunts to go around. As far as my immediate family though, my Mom passed away about a year ago; pops is still around, but he and I don't get along like we should; baby sister--- oh, I'm one of two offspring; I'm the male, and she's the female--- is the closest family I've got."

"Okay. I'm still... hm..."

"What's wrong?"

"I still dont' feel like I'm quite getting a feel for humanity yet. I sense you can tell me what I need to know; perhaps I'm constraining too much."

"Uh..."

"Just tell me what humankind is to you. What it represents..."

"Hm... Hmmmmmmm... Arright. I wish I had some music though, that might make it easier to convey. Humankind... is colorful. Almost very shade that you can conceive captures a facet of humankind. Humanity has adapted to occupy this planet in its entirety; humanity has conquered almost every realm there is to conquer..."

"I can hear the music..."

"Huh?"

"I can hear you, keep talking..."

"...almost every realm humanity has conquered. But humanity hasn't learned to conquer and master itself. We rise and we fall; we conquer the unknown, raise the standard extend our reach. But only to find new ways to defeat and contain and destroy ourselves. And each other; humanity is both society and individual. As a society, we help each other that we all might survive; as individuals we fight each other that we may rule... something. Something that has no worth without the presence and approval and participation of our fellow man."

"It sounds beautiful... Keep talking."

"...As I talk to you, for the first time I truly wonder if humanity is in its final decline. With every advancement, the potential for our own destruction grows significantly. Every rise is higher, every fall is deeper. It's our imperfection, our destructive nature that both elevates us to greater than human; reduces us to less than human."

"Listen to this..."

"...Where--- is that music coming from?"

"It's a gift we have where I'm from: you use instruments; we breathe."

"Wow."

"It's the sound that came to me as you spoke. The melodic expression of your words. Think of it as translation of your English into another language of sound..."

"..."

"Keep talking..."

"And then, there's the thing that truly makes mankind unique: soul. The way we sing and dance and jump and strum and tap and beat and trill our feelings out. And we do it in such a way that we all understand... give me your hand."

"Okay..."

"Just like the turbulent history of humanity, we move, back and forth, around and around, tracing our steps over and over, each time better or worse than before. We flow, we crash, we flow again. And maybe one day the music stops, but until then, the dance continues. I think I'm talking crazy."

"The last time you talked crazy, you found out there was somebody crazier than you who wasn't so crazy, didn't you?"

"Haha... yeah. I shoulda figured you'd know that."

"You've told me what I needed to hear. And maybe what you needed to hear too."

"Yeah... I think I did need that."

"I've got to go now. Maybe we'll dance again another time."

"If you bring the music."

"I don't know... your music isn't half bad for an imperfect being..."



And with that, she was gone. Man that was a beautiful alien chick...

I Almost Believe My Own Fabrication B-J