“Beyond the Stars”

It seems like it’s been forever since I have taken a moment to look-up at the stars in wonder and absolute amazement. I seem to get caught-up in this thing we call “Life”.  As I sit here on my balcony overlooking the most beautiful beach you have ever seen, with its white sandy beaches and the turquoise blue water lapping at the shore, knowing it will be the very last time I will ever see it. I meditate on many things and I wonder how I can make a better future for my people as we strike out into the Universe for the first time in all of humankind, to a planet we know very little about and that is so very far away from all we know and love.

It has not just been me, sitting alone with myself, meditating on the wonders of the universe, the wonders of this planet in a very long time, instead I have spent my life preparing for this moment, for this opportunity to save my planet and my people. On this night the eve of the biggest mission of my life that is what I am doing. Knowing that I will be responsible to make a better world in the place we end up, millions of light years from here and I gaze upon the stars that I will never see like this again and I wonder if I am up to the huge task in front of me and my crew. If I was the right choice, if my crew was the right choice, if the equipment and supplies are the right choice. I guess that what we do when it all seems to be coming to an culmination we meditate on our decision, on our choices, on our lives.

As an adult all I have sometimes meditated on how I am going to pay the bills and how I am going to pay them without sacrificing my soda money or my daily lunch money. But now I will be setting up a new world on a new planet and our survival will not be about the bills or how we are going to pay them, instead it will be about how to protect and keep my crew alive on a planet we know so little about, it will be about how to grow enough food to sustain my crew and my fellow earthlings that will be 50 years behind us with additional supplies and newer technologies, it will be about how to terraform the planet, how to make oxygen to breath, how to make this strange new world more Earth-like. It will be about survival about life or death decision not only for my crew but for all of humankind. It will be our own Noah’s Ark and our future survival!

How can we as citizens of this new planet learn how to live within our resources and not abuse our environment, and look for environmentally conscious ways of living? 

Looking out at these stars and smelling the ocean breeze and feeling the wind on my face often makes me meditate on so many things about life and my feelings personally. But as the Commander of this very important mission this will be my last night for me to dwell on such things alone, without a worry for anyone except myself,  because as of tomorrow I will be responsible for a crew of 4,000 souls all from different walks of life, different genetic bases, different beliefs systems, different knowledge bases with different disciplines all hand-picked by myself and Universal Command to be apart of the most important mission for all of humankind because the death and destruction of Earth is near and we have little time to save the people of our planet. We have 150 years and three crews coming at 50-year intervals, With the rest of humankind and animal-kind following 50 years later, 200 years total before the Earth is unlivable and destroyed.  We can no longer save our planet. The experts took too long to see what was happening to our Earth and now she is beyond saving, she is already dying and all of the people of the Earth’s survival depends on the success of every one of these missions. There is no room for errors not even one crew can fail.

Sometimes the Universe gives us grave decision to make and grave questions to answer and it should make you wonder what is it the Universe is trying to tell us? I mean if we cannot solve issues on our own planet and save our own planet how can we ever hope to succeed when we reach the new planet.  And when we do make it to our new planet will we be able to succeed at making a better life their in this strange new world we know so little about?

If we are going to use up our own planets’ resources to the point where whole civilizations are lost as they were in ancient times, not so distant past, and what the Earth is facing in the future times? Can we every do better on another planet in a different solar system, if we could not do better right here on Earth? 

These are all things I ponder tonight under the stars shining so brightly up in the sky on the eve of the biggest day of my life. I sit here and think of a better world that we should all want and strive towards. A world thousands of light years away from all that we have ever known and have ever loved.

A world where we all are equal no matter where we come from, what we believe in, who we love, what the color of our skin is, or who we presently see ourselves to be. 

A world where nobody goes hungry and we all share what we have as a community to take care of each other and our environment. A world where we are all protected and cared for and nobody ever has to worry about basic needs again. A world where everyone looks out for each other and themselves and nobody goes without simple basics. A world where we can all learn and grow and be able to look up into the night sky at the beautiful stars a in wonder and amazement and ask the big questions. Knowing I am trying to model a better world for my people out there in the vast universe of galaxies and stars and that I will go forth and explore to find a different planet for the people of the Earth to call home.

I sit here looking up into the beautiful night sky, pondering the mysteries of the universe and how we will ever earn the knowledge of those mysteries, if we cannot just take the time to sit with ourselves and meditate on what it would mean for such a world to exist. Tomorrow I will blast off into the great unknown in command of the first Star Ship of its kind to a new planet from whence we will never return.

And I sit her with these never-ending it seems almost limitless stars in this beautiful night sky beckoned me to sit in meditation on all the good and the bad things we have learned and I thrust my wishes out into the night sky so full of beautiful stars and I gaze upon the beautiful stars of this vast universe and I ask myself the same questions that the rest of my crew and all of humankind are sitting under the stars asking themselves. 

For I cannot expect the world to change if I myself will not change. Tomorrow I leave the Earth and all its beauty in search of hopefully a better planet to call home and to hopefully one day save humankind from itself.

Looking up into the huge night sky with its thousands of stars and I ask myself do I really have what it takes to make the world a better place even if that world is going to be on a new virtually unknown planet in a completely new solar system far away from all that I have ever known and that familiar night sky filled with those beautiful stars shining so brightly for all to see….

These beautiful Stars prompt me to ask these questions and to meditate upon all of creation and how best to serve humankind and animal-kind alike on this eve of the most important and perhaps the last journey I will ever undertake!!!

By: Rochelle Lae

Date: 7/21/2020