From its first airing I followed Star Trek. I’ve read & watched a lot of sci-fi ever since. Not the type to go to conventions, or watch the DVD extras, or become fluent in Klingon. It’s just entertainment for me, not a lifestyle.

I was not suited to study science during my formative public education years. Probably due to an attention deficit. Or the teachers at my schools being burned out by a thankless job with little remuneration. Nevertheless I’ve gleaned some knowledge of the sciences through fiction, which in turn led me to read real-life physicists’ works, stuff on quantum theory, astronomical phenomena, neuroscience, etc. It could be said that Star Trek was my gateway drug to higher learning.

My mind has never had a problem with the suspension of disbelief. I’ve always liked to think anything’s possible. Not probable. Merely possible. I utilize my own Uncertainty Principle where all things paranormal are concerned (which bears no resemblance to Heisenberg’s principle other than the name). Like intentionally leaving my mind ajar. I’m never on a need-to-know basis.

Had work as night janitor of the purportedly haunted Harvard Exit Theater for a time. The theater leased the building (erected in 1925) from the original owners, The Women’s Century Club. The story goes that a woman took her own life back in the early days of the club. It definitely felt spooky to be there alone in the wee hours, but that’s true of being alone in any large, old building. I can get the creeps even in a small room in the dead of night. Active imagination, me. Over the course of my working there I had several inexplicable experiences. Were these proof of a ghostly presence? [shrug] These occurrences made a low-wage job interesting, which is a feat in itself. Even if supernatural phenomena could be proved, it would change nothing, sad to say. We’d all still be here doing our daily, mundane self-destruction.

About a decade later, my girlfriend & I & a few of our neighbors were making for home after work one evening. We were all trudging down John to 13th, the corner facing downtown Seattle. It was winter, already dark, & unusually lacking in the ever-present overcast. We came to an abrupt stop when some flashing lights above the city caught our attention. What I at first thought was some promo thing with swirling searchlights was… not. Six triangular orange lights had moved over the skyline & hovered there. What followed is about 5 jaws dropped. Silence ensued.

The 6 lights split into 2 groups of 3. They maneuvered in ways no known aircraft could. Then all 6 broke formation & zagged around independently, impossibly fast, stopping only briefly to hover here & there. They regrouped & shot out in an ascent almost too quick to see. All told, keeping in mind I have no sense of time when weird shit goes down, maybe 2 minutes. Then they were just gone. We sheepishly glanced at each other with looks of ‘did we just see that?’ plastered across our faces. Reluctantly we went our separate ways, every one of us pondering the exact same thing.

When searching for some nap fodder to stream a few years ago, I stumbled upon what I call sci-fi documentaries. Nap fodder is anything I find boring enough to doze to, especially after a spate of less-than-stellar sleeps. The sci-fi docs are those exposes on UFO existence/activity. So far, at least the parts I haven’t slept through, these are all the same show rearranged. Their makers are too gungho about recycling, so the shows are a perfect soporific.

The overarching theme is this notion that proof of otherworldly visitors is being kept under wraps by shady government types, & that’s the main reason to distrust people in power. I have my own reasons, & they have absolutely no relation to hoarding of advanced tech or alien cadavers. Mine are more time-honored reasons for distrusting the powerful: plain ol’ human greed & the corrupting influence of power.

These shows toss around possibilities of the alien agenda. ‘Are they here to wipe us out?’ In which case, if they just give it a minute, we’ll most likely do their work for them. ‘Are they here to save us from ourselves?’ I’d have to say ‘What’s the hold-up? You’re cutting it a bit close.’ I’ve pieced these bits together from sleeping through over 85 percent of these shows. I can’t know for sure what I’ve missed, but I bet it wasn’t much.

As dazzling lights danced over my city in a momentarily spellbinding spectacle, these were none of my thoughts. I could’ve been witnessing marketing for a spanking new laser show as far as that goes. I still needed to find some dinner, carry out tedious household tasks, then get ready for bed so I could get up & do it all again the next day. What it gave me though was rare: a surprise unknown. I’m glad I saw those lights for no other reason than I don’t know what they were.