My UFO Experience

In high school my slightly wacky art teacher once posed this question to the class, "So, who here has seen a UFO?" When no one responded, he said, "Well, I've seen one." Then he proceeded to tell us a story about traveling down a dark stretch of road with his grandfather through New Jersey's Pinelands when they both spotted mysterious lights in the sky and pulled off the road to watch. Mr. O and his grandfather never learned the origin of the UFO.

Last week while out for an early morning walk with my dog, I had my own UFO experience. As dawn broke over New Jersey, I looked up to see a strange white streak in the sky. My first thought was that it was the trail from a jet that was oddly lit by the rising sun, but it didn't look quite right.

My overactive imagination began to muse upon the endless possibilities. In no time I had devised an explanation for the strange streak. Naturally, it was all about aliens entering Earth's atmosphere. I imagined the big splash this monumental event would cause, how people would react, what the government would do, what the aliens would do. There were several different scenarios dancing around in my head. By the time I had returned to the house, I had drafted an entire story, if not a complete novel.

Still intrigued by the explanation for the UFO, I turned on the radio to find out if there was any news. Secretly I wished to hear an excited reporter announce the arrival of extraterrestial visitors. I was not alone. Many reported seeing weird lights in the skies. I listened to callers describe their experiences and offer up their theories.

Then, eventually, came the official explanation for the UFO. The white streak had been caused by an old Soviet rocket, space junk, returning to earth's atmosphere and burning up on reentry. While the official explanation was still more science fictionish than my jet trail explanation, it was hardly as exciting as alien visitors.

That slow moving flash of light in the sky did bring some aliens, at least to my imagination, and sparked my own creativity, providing the inspiration for a story that I have yet to set down on paper. Who knows, there may even be a space junk story floating around in my head as well.

Inspiration can come at any time, sometimes when we least expect it, like early morning dog walks. As writers it is our duty to make the most of our inspiration, to turn unexplained lights in the sky into page turning stories.

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