Proof of Existence

Earlier, I asked the question, “How many flying saucers does it take to prove that flying saucers exist?” The answer to that question is that it takes only one to prove the existence of flying saucers.

Now, what constitutes proof for you? Do you have to touch it? Do you have to see it fly? What if it has crashed and is incapable of flying? Will the testimonies of “experts” suffice?

The burden of “proof” is different for different people.

When I was in high school I worked in the woods one summer with my uncle and cousins “peeling popple.” We would cut poplar trees down, remove the limbs, peel the bark off the trunk, and then cut the trunk into 8 foot logs for the papermaking industry.

As we were sitting on the tailgates of the trucks one lunch hour, I noticed what appeared to be a round silvery object floating along with the clouds on the breeze that was coming down from the North. I called attention to the object, because I had never seen anything like it in my 16 or 17 years of existence. Our boss, Emmett, blurted out, “Must be one of them goddamn flying saucers.” It didn’t appear to be ‘flying’ at the time, however.

I thought from its behavior that it could be a silvery weather balloon until it suddenly stopped relative to the clouds and let the clouds float on by. I couldn’t imagine a weather balloon doing something like that.

It stayed in one position for several minutes until a big cloud covered the object. Suddenly, we watched as the object rose straight up out of the cloud and accelerated at high speed until we could no longer see it.

Now, by definition it was an Unidentified Flying Object. I had no reference for something shaped like that to be exhibiting that type of behavior. I couldn’t ‘identify’ it. Was it a “flying saucer” as our boss stated? I don’t know. “Insufficient data,” as Mr. Spock would say. But it was definitely outside my realm of experience and understanding. And, as Nettie opined in her comment to my original question, the existence of something like what we observed makes me open to the possibility that it might have been intelligently controlled. With all the stars in the sky and all the planets in existence, I find it difficult to believe that life here on Earth is the only life in the entire universe. Therefore, there may be intelligent life elsewhere that might be sufficiently curious enough to come study us. We study lower forms of life; why shouldn’t “they?”

That one incident didn’t “prove” the existence of flying saucers to me, but it did keep the possibility wide open.