People born in the U.S. in the last two-thirds of the 20th century, have shared the opinion that they spent their lives in the best time ever for humanity (so far). They spent the bulk of their lives after World War II. They believed that world wars were over, primarily due to the development of the atomic bomb. This was a war to end wars.

Since that time, mankind has made much advancement in the awareness of reality. We are now entering a new awareness than mankind has never known. We have at last overcome the fear of hobgoblins, headless horsemen, or any kind of weird creatures that may have once ruled the lives of mankind. New realities have flushed out the nightmares of our forefathers.

As we survey the planets surrounding our sun, we have become more aware, that the entire universe is governed by one creator. We now realize that the creator of the universe has no competition. There is no evil tempter, other than our own self imagined fear and ignorance.

We are finding ourselves entering a new age, where humanity is beginning to realize that there is one creator of the universe, and everything in it. We now realize that everything is governed by the same rules. We have come to realize that the only evil in creation, is the result of the ignorance and fear of mankind.

We have looked upon the unfamiliar, as our enemies. The world has been populated by very different populations, in a great variety of climates, terrain and environments. We have been slow in coming to realize the similarity of human kind in its many variations. We shall come to realize more and more the common birthright of humanity, and see them all as creatures with birthrights in the world of reality.

Mankind has finally come, or is coming quickly, to a realization of its common cause in becoming the ruling population of the earth. The constellation Alpha Centauri contains the star which is the closest star to earth after the sun, which is of course, our closest star. Alpha Centauri, however, is four light years away. That means that if one traveled at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) it would take four years to get there. That is a long way, and I assume it would be several years before anyone would ever get there. It gives us a brief idea of the size of the universe. It also gives us pause to realize that if the other stars have planets surrounding them, some must have inhabitants much the same way our earth does. These inhabitants could easily have lives in various stages of development. The earth has gone through its slow development over hundreds of years. I don’t think it is silly, or ignorant, to accept the idea that the universe may be filled with planets, which are home to all sorts of life in many stages of development. Some may be less developed than we, and some very far advanced beyond anything we could comprehend.

I do not suggest that what I write here is a fact. No one knows, and I’m sure no one ever will. We live light years apart. I only suggest it, as a possibility we will never know.

The seeds from which all life blossoms are wonderfully constructed beyond our understanding. We invent many an apparatus, but we will never create the gifted acorn artificially.

We will also, undoubtedly, never discover if any form of life exists on any of the planets which surround any stars in existence.

There are those, who in realizing the immensity of the universe, have started referring to the universe as many universes. They call them multiverses.

The word universe is defined by Webster as, “the totality of known or supposed objects and phenomena throughout space.” That means there is only one universe, no matter how big it is. May God bless America.

Richard Westlund is a Collins resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com