Introduction
These two Martians, prompted by our probes on and around their planet, landed here in the US. They were looking for signs of intelligent life.
That is the subject of today’s 10-minute episode.
Continuing
Revolution 2.0™ stumbled into an exclusive interview with two self-professed Martians, Gog and Magog. I took them at their word about their planetary ethnicity because they were thoughtful enough to be small and green, arriving in a flying saucer; some stereotypes are downright helpful.
I call this meeting an interview, but as you will soon see, they asked most of the questions. I was out in our backyard, repeatedly saying “Good potty!” to our 9-week-old Standard Poodle. (BTW, lest you think the life of a podcaster is all glamour, consistently hobnobbing with presidents and celebrities, I do this a lot…:) ). Their saucer landed a few feet away from our blazing fire pit.
As they emerged from their spacecraft, one of them said something that was entirely unintelligible. I responded with, “What? Who are you?” (Best I could do in the moment.) After apparently recalibrating their speech mechanisms, he spoke again. “We are Gog and Magog, from Mars. We were taking another lap in your ionosphere, saw your fire and thought this was as good a time as any to settle the question of whether there is intelligent life outside of Mars.”
“Would you like to sit down?” I asked, not really knowing if they were standing or sitting at the moment. “Thank you”, answered one, while identifying himself as Gog. They adjusted themselves in an odd way, which I suppose meant they were now sitting. “May we ask you some questions?”, asked Magog? “Feel free.”
“We lubb the slogan ‘All Lives Matter’; why does it make so many people mad?” “Lubb?” I responded. “Sorry, translation error; I meant love. We love the slogan ‘All Lives Matter. We also hear slogans like ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Blue Lives Matter’. Aren’t they simply subsets of the completely correct claim that ‘All Lives Matter’? It seems…” Gog interrupted with “What is a ‘Blue life’? We can’t find any Blue people.” Undeterred, Magog continued, “It seems that when some people hold up signs saying Black Lives Matter, others hold up signs saying All Lives Matter, and they start yelling and fighting. Then some other people hold up signs saying that Blue Lives Matter (he glared at Magog to keep him from interrupting again). The Blue people and the Black people also don’t seem to get along.”
In the interval when I was trying to think of a way to explain this to an extraterrestrial, Gog, politely, this time, asked, “Who are the Blue people? And why does Black people mean people who are mostly not black, but various shades of brown? And why does White mean all those people who are not white? Isn’t your primitive printer paper white; do you know anyone who is that color?”
Well, he had me there, but I offered. “Well, Blue means a profession, law enforcement, and Black means, well, anyone with African ancestry, or who looks like they might have African ancestry.” They looked confused, so I went on, “And White means that you are not Black, Latino, a Pacific Islander, from Spain, or Asian.”
They slumped a bit, looked at each other, then looked back at me, asking together, “Why don’t the colors work together?” At this point, I wished that I had not turned on my fire pit. I ventured, “Well, you see, everyone is looking for justice.” Again, together, they asked, “How do you get to justice for all by fighting each other? Is one side really the enemy?” I began to fidget, wondering how on earth (pun intended) I had gotten picked as the person to answer for all of this.
Gog changed directions slightly by asking, “If everyone wants justice, then everyone must want laws to be enforced. Why are so many people mad at the Blue people who enforce the law?” Thinking that at last I had one I could answer, I said, “Some people think that law enforcement is systemically bad, and that it needs to be greatly reformed, perhaps even abolished.” Gog, struggling to be patient with me said, “If law enforcement is systemically bad, why isn’t everything having to do with law enforcement completely ‘screwed up’ as you would say? That would have to be true if the Blue people are systemically bad.”
Damn. They had me back on my heels. I was getting tied up in mental knots. I had no reasonable answers for their completely logical questions.
Magog quietly asked me, “How well do you know your Bible? Do you know who Gog and Magog were?” I dimly remembered the 1954 movie, “Gog”, but that was no help. My knowledge of Revelation was barely enough to understand that they were warring entities. Gog helped me out, “We picked these names to show you that no matter how deep the division is between entities, cooperation is always the answer. We cooperate, which is how we are able to get along so well, and to achieve things like interplanetary travel. Of course, before cooperation makes any sense, there needs to be a certain level of, well, intelligence leading to a determination of common goals. That is why we came here looking for signs of intelligent life.”
Gog picked up where Magog left off, “We did not really come here because we saw your fire; there are huge fires burning everywhere. We came to see you because of your message, your message which includes seeking common goals, you call it podcasting, yes?” “Yes!” I practically shouted back. “How did you find me?” “Your message found us. Work, and work hard so that your message finds millions of others.”
I was overwhelmed by the goal they had set out for Revolution 2.0; they sensed that and one of them, I forgot which one, asked, “What is a s’more?” as he pointed to the fire pit. “Huh, you are asking about s’mores?” I described them in what I thought was delicious detail, adding that we had enjoyed many hundreds of them around the fire pit, with all sorts of happy, smiling people involved at different times over the years.
I did not know if they were simply allowing me to take a break from the questions and daunting goals, or if there was a deeper message, a message somehow connecting s’mores and common goals. Unlike potato chips or popcorn, s’mores are more than must a snack, they are an anticipated and then talked about event. From the first moment they are mentioned, including the shopping and other planning, there is a fair amount of happy discussion and anticipation. And who has ever gone camping without looking forward to s’mores? Does anyone remember cutting and shaping branches to cook them while camping–then comparing and debating who made the best roasting stick? And the discussion over whether it is better to slowly brown them vs just burning them could go on all night. Hmmm…seems that s’mores events require some cooperative planning, leading up to an enjoyable and memorable experience. An experience people want to repeat–together.
Without knowing that the speech mechanism was still on, one of them said, “He looked pretty rattled; good thing that we did not mention the face mask mess.” “Yeah. Let’s go. We can always come back another time to see if we can find intelligent life here.”
What are your answers to the Martians’ questions? And were they trying to teach me something with the question about s’mores?
Tell me what you believe. I and many others want to know.
As always, whatever you do, do it in love. Without love, anything we do is empty.
Contact
As we get ready to wrap up, please do respond in the episodes with comments or questions about this episode or anything that comes to mind, or connect with me on Twitter, @willluden, Facebook, facebook.com/will.luden, and LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/in/willluden/. And you can subscribe on your favorite device through Apple, Google, or Stitcher.
If you liked today’s episode, other episodes or the revolution2-0.org site itself, comment, subscribe, and encourage others to subscribe with you. Each One Reach One will help spread the word about Revolution 2.0™
Will Luden, coming to you from 7,200’ in Colorado Springs.
The core, driving principles at Revolution 2.0, are:
1. Personal Responsibility. Take it, teach it.
2. Be Your Brother’s Keeper. Taking care of our brothers and sisters.
If we apply those two core principles simultaneously, we will inevitably be on the right path.
- Ending Gun Violence: Punish The Criminals (EP. 405) - July 15, 2022
- How To Get Good Government: The Formula (EP. 404) - July 1, 2022
- The Candy Bomber Lives: Is It You? (EP. 403) - June 24, 2022
29 Responses
Will. Good work! I think you are getting hot!
Love and kisses. Gus & Rena
Many thanks, G&R; I continue to learn. XO, Will
I really like your approach here, Will. The questions are what we all should be asking and not be satisfied until we find answers that are acceptable and on common ground.
Jim, thank you. I wanted to take a fresh look at some of the core issues that we talk about, instead of starting to talk about them from where we are at this moment.
From the first moment they are mentioned, including the shopping and other planning, there is a fair amount of happy discussion and anticipation.
When a blind man bears the standard pity those who follow…. Where ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise….Nevada Goold
You send bill funds on the final attainable minute.
hey there and thank you for your info – I have certainly picked up anything new from
right here. I did however expertise a few technical points using this
site, as I experienced to reload the web site lots of times
previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your hosting is OK?
Not that I am complaining, but slow loading instances times will sometimes affect your placement
in google and could damage your high-quality score if ads and
marketing with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this RSS to my e-mail
and could look out for a lot more of your respective exciting content.
Ensure that you update this again very soon.
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point.
You obviously know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting
videos to your site when you could be giving us something informative to read?
I’m not sure exactly why but this website is loading
incredibly slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it
a problem on my end? I’ll check back later and see if the problem still exists.
Aw, this was a really nice post. Taking the time and actual effort to create a great
article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a whole lot and never manage to get nearly anything done.
It is not my first time to pay a quick visit this web page,
i am visiting this web site dailly and take pleasant data from here daily.
A No Credit score Test Payday Loan is illusionary.
It’s in fact very complicated in this busy life to
listen news on Television, therefore I only use web for
that reason, and obtain the hottest news.
If some one wishes to be updated with most recent technologies therefore he must be
visit this website and be up to date every day.
naturally like your web site but you have to take a
look at the spelling on several of your posts. Many of
them are rife with spelling problems and I to find it very troublesome to inform the truth then again I’ll surely
come back again.
Aw, this was an exceptionally good post. Spending some time and actual effort to produce a great article… but what can I say…
I hesitate a whole lot and never seem to get anything done.
Pretty! This was an incredibly wonderful article. Thank you
for supplying these details.
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be really something which I think I would never understand.
It seems too complex and very broad for me. I’m looking forward
for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!
Hi there, after reading this remarkable article i am too glad to share
my know-how here with colleagues.
My brother suggested I might like this web site.
He was entirely right. This post truly made my day.
You cann’t imagine simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
Awesome things here. I am very happy to see your post. Thank you so much and I am having a look ahead to
touch you. Will you kindly drop me a mail?
My spouse and I stumbled over here different website and thought I
should check things out. I like what I see so now i’m following
you. Look forward to looking into your web page repeatedly.
This is a topic that’s close to my heart… Best wishes!
Exactly where are your contact details though?
Thank you a lot for sharing this with all people you actually recognise what
you’re speaking about! Bookmarked. Kindly additionally talk over
with my site =). We may have a link exchange arrangement between us
Helpful information. Fortunate me I found your website
by chance, and I am shocked why this coincidence did not took
place earlier! I bookmarked it.
I need to to thank you for this wonderful read!!
I certainly enjoyed every bit of it. I’ve got you book-marked to check out new stuff you post…
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all folks you actually realize what you’re speaking about!
Bookmarked. Kindly also visit my site =). We may have a hyperlink change contract between us
Why users still use to read news papers when in this technological
world everything is available on net?