The Parable of the Alien

The Parable of the Alien

Once upon a time, an alien crash-landed in the middle of the Kimberly ranges. While Alien Freddy could find no one around to ask about our lifestyle and culture he managed to access our internet and social media sites. He spent hours scrolling through people’s postings and pictures. He read our disagreements and the gooey stuff. He looked at the pictures of gourmet meals and the people sharing hugs and smiles. He looked at people’s travel posts and sporting achievements. He gawped at the experiences they had of parachuting and bungee jumping.

He scrolled through endless pictures and comments about social events and invitations to parties.

Because of the remoteness of the area, Freddy couldn’t verify what he had seen on the screen.

Thanks to YouTube Freddy fixed his spacecraft headed back to Planet Zeta and reported to his fearless leader Olexa who was a wise and compassionate ruler. Olexa was flabbergasted to learn that on planet Earth no one ever had a disastrous meal. Further, while there was some disagreement amongst a minority of people, the overall vibe was one of overwhelming congeniality. There were lots of pictures and well wishes of support as well as the ‘Friendship apps’ that Freddy had downloaded. People were very keen to meet other people and connect. There was no such thing as a lonely, depressed, hungry soul on planet Earth. Furthermore, all the humans were well-groomed, and attractive and achieved all they set out to do with spectacular results, marks and trophies. Fancy that!

Could it be that we spend too much time comparing our ‘inside reality’ with the ‘outside reality’ that Freddy saw on his really intelligent screen? And I wonder what that does to us in the long run.