Starfish Questions

I met an interesting species today.  Think orange three-legged starfish crossed with overgrown worms and you’d have a picture that’s close to how they looked.  These aliens were each the size of a raccoon with the curiosity of a five-year old child.  I barely learned a thing about them.  I spent almost the entire three hours answering their questions.   I’m not complaining though.  They were super friendly and I actually learned quite a bit just from their questions.  It’s nice too to know that I’m welcome back without the fear of being somebody’s lunch.

Their questions started out simple enough.   As you might imagine, they wanted to know what these things on our face are for, what possible purpose could ears and noses serve.  How do our bodies transfer energy to each other, to the collective whole of our species?  They were baffled as to how we manage to allow things to seep into our skin with such small pores.  Then there was the one about why don’t we fly. 

Then the questions delved into our relations with each other on Earth and how our societies are organized.  I have to say though; they were much more interested in how we travel through the stars, what alliances we have with other planets and how we trade (products and energy) with other species.  Needless to say, they were disappointed to find out that these things only happen in our fiction.

Eventually, the questions ventured into a more philosophical nature such as do we know how life throughout the universe is connected to everything else.  What is the purpose to it all?  What role do we each play in the overall scheme of the universe and do we still fulfill that purpose if we don’t know what our role is meant to be?  How does trivpet (translation = karma?) transfer from our treatment of inanimate objects to how we treat each other?   

There were a lot more questions that followed those, but you get the idea.  Again, it was an interesting, albeit exhausting day.  As always though, it was well worth the trip.

~ Clark