Hi, I’m Apple…
…and I’m Ginger.
This week we want to tell you a chronicle.
In July 1976 we landed a probe on Mars for the first time. Remember seeing those pictures live, from another planet, with clouds like Earth and a sky like Earth? We do.
Then the naysayers started saying they were right that there was no life on Mars. Others pointed out that the probe could only scan in the immediate area and a manned mission could do so much more. On the whole the naysayers won the day, but it could’ve been so much different.
These were the same naysayers that said the Moon wasn’t worth the trip in 1969 and caused the Apollo Moon landings to be cancelled in 1972.
We were always meant to keep going out into the unknown, making it home, taming the land and getting closer as a planet as we did. It’s the pioneering spirit that built America, that tamed the West and Alaska. After 1972 we stopped travelling outwards and sent robots instead. As a planet we started looking inwards, leading to wars over oil and land and religion.
Enter Project Bradbury, to study ancient sites on this planet, to understand the people who built them, who they were, what they believed, how they lived and how they died out and whether their spirits remain with us as part of the fabric of nature, one with their creator. If we learn enough about our own planet’s past we will be better informed if we meet life from elsewhere.
Is there life out there? Almost certainly. Life as we know it? We are made in our creator’s image and the universe only had one creator. Perhaps they left Mars long ago, settled here and live among us. If you stare into a stranger’s face, it might be the face of an Angel, or it might be the face of a Martian, or maybe they amount to the same thing. Who knows?
In June 2001 Spender joined Project Bradbury. He became dismayed at how holy sights and ancient cities were turned into tourist attractions, to walk over the graves of a lost civilisation. One day he went up into the hills and came back a week later saying that he had met and spoken to the spirits of this civilisation and they had shown him how they lived and that he had seen their world through their eyes. Were they ghosts from the past or was Spender a ghost from their future? Who knows? Does it matter?
Spender came to stay in our lovely little village of Upton Went. He said it reminded him of Green Bluff, Illinois, where a colleague had grown up. Here we celebrate the joy of being. Life is its’ own reward. that is our lovely little village of Upton Went.
Spender was right. People came to these holy sites, some because they were afraid and some because they weren’t afraid, some with big dreams, some with small dreams and some with no dreams at all, but they did come and what happens to history when they do?
Wilder was the head of Project Bradbury since January 1999. He was there when Spender disappeared. He oversaw the colonisation of these sights and by 2004 the landscape was changing and by 2006 many businesses had come to exploit these areas of unspoilt land. He always remembered what Spender said and did and finally, in March 2007, he went to see his friend, Sam, who ran a diner near one of these sights and he told him how he felt.
Sam said “You’re beginning to sound like Spender and Wilder said “I understand Spender.”
Feeling inspired, Wilder went home and told his family they were going on a camping holiday and he would show them the people who had once graced this planet, maybe from Earth, maybe Mars.
He brought them to the hills just outside our lovely little village of Upton Went. They chose a place to stay and they asked whether the Martians were there and he told them “they’re here.”
One night he took them to the lake and told them they were going to meet the Martians. They asked “where are they?” He told them “they’re here.” Finally he stopped by the lake, knelt down, pointed to the water and said “There. Those are the Martians” and they saw their smiling faced reflected in the water.
All those ancient civilisations on this planet that belong to the ages. We are them today and they are us and if this planet was visited in the past then we are them today also and they are us. The universe is one. Why are there still wars? Why does religion divide, instead of uniting this world?
That’s why our lovely little village of Upton Went is so special. It’s a unique place. Remember, life is its’ own reward. We week nothing more.
We’ve discovered something special here in our lovely little village of Upton Went. Spender has joined us. Wilder has joined us. We’re very glad you’ve joined us too. We’ll see you again next week. It’s time to say goodnight, my friend.
O.K, goodnight folks. Se you next Tuesday.
themaster1968 