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June 30, 2005 Before I get going on my real topic, let me mention that, according to one of useless-knowlege.com's contributors, a spaceship launched some years ago and now leaving the solar system has been traveling at a speed of about 1,000,000 miles a day, which comes out to around 11.6 miles a second. Since light, traveling some 186,000 miles a second, moves about 16,000 times as fast as such a spaceship, it would take the spaceship 64,000 years to reach the nearest star, 4 light-years away. There are probably only 11 stars within 10 light-years of Earth, stars that we could reach in 160,000 years or less. So the likelihood that we'll ever get to the stars is nil. Anyway, back in the early 1980's, I was stuck in New York City for almost 4 years. During 3 of those years, I was virtually impecunious, and so did a lot of hanging around, one of my usual haunts being Washington Square, the hub of Greenwich Village. As I mentioned in an earlier article, Greenwich Village is less the gathering place for artists and bohemians that it is reputed to be, than a magnet for alcoholics, drug addicts, gangmembers, beggars, panders, thieves and psychotics. Nonetheless, without any money in my pocket, I was forced to find a place to pass my days, and Washington Square was conveniently located. Willy-nilly, one who frequents Washington Square will meet a lot of people, many of them not very desirable, though there are some talented and interesting people who come around. The rest are neutral. One of the more singular individuals that I met was a Caucasian male of around 40 from West Virginia. His name was Bill, and though he didn't have a particularly good physique, walking with a slight bow, one glance would tell you that he was exceptionally tough and muscular. This was matched by an exceedingly irritable and aggressive temperament. He once remarked that he had to watch his temper, because if he "laid in" to somebody, he could "hurt him pretty bad." This was not mere bombast. Once you got to know Bill, you realized that his self-image was completely justified. Within 5 minutes of meeting Bill, you learned that he was a Christian. In fact, I can't recall that he ever spoke of anything else. It was Jesus this and Jesus that from the minute you bumped into him till the minute you recalled you had an appointment somewhere else, and had to leave immediately. Bill had devised a grand plan for the solution of the problems confronting the human race. His idea was that the US and the USSR should form an alliance for the purpose of colonizing outer space, thereby providing fresh homelands to be peopled by the denizens of this overpopulated planet. Ronald Reagan and Leonid Brezhnev would get together, under the supervision of Jesus Christ, and build fleets of spaceships to probe the cosmos. I asked how Reagan and Brezhnev would communicate with Jesus Christ, and Bill replied that there would be an intermediary interpreting Scripture for the two heads of state. This intermediary would be none other than Billy Graham. It was hard for me to imagine Reagan and Brezhnev resplending in the radiance emitted by Billy Graham. But I quickly found out that, when Bill was around, you didn't say a word against Billy Graham, lest Bill fly into a rage and have to restrain himself in order not to "hurt you pretty bad". So, avoiding the question of Billy Graham's suitableness for the captaincy of the Universe, I got on the subject of the great distance to the stars, and how it would be utterly impossible for human beings to reach the stars at all, let alone move sufficient equipment and people to found colonies in space. Bill knew enough to know that a journey to the stars was a matter of generations and generations, but, as he saw it, that didn't really pose a problem. He had designed a spaceship that could transport thousands of colonists, over a period of generations. He even had a drawing; I could hardly believe it. He carried with him, I guess at all times, a carefully folded pencil drawing about 36 inches square. The drawing depicted a huge spherical spaceship. There were hydroponic farms illuminated by artificial sunlight. There were observatories, dormitories, kitchens, engine rooms and machine shops. You could even see people walking down long corridors. I have nothing against surrealistic paintings, like those of Maurits Escher or Salvador Dalí, providing only that we recognize them as fantasies. Likewise, I am not opposed to science fiction, as long as we don't fall into the trap of taking it seriously, but Bill did not see himself as an artist or a science fiction enthusiast. I'm not even opposed to church weddings and funerals, as long as we recognize them as simply ceremonial or honorary. But Bill was dead serious about his grand plan and his design. I don't know if the question of the feasibility of launching a fleet of such spaceships ever entered Bill's mind, but I decided just to let the topic go, saying, "Hmm! That's interesting!" Of course, people would just classify Bill as "paranoiac" or perhaps "psychotic", denying any responsibility on the part of Christianity for putting such ideas in his mind. If it hadn't been Christianity, there'd have been something else, they'd probably reason. It's curious, however, that Christianity did not suffice to cast out Bill's demons, in view of the single-mindedness of his faith. There's another explanation for people like Bill: "That's New York for you!" You do meet such people in droves in that metropolis. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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