HOME, HOME ON THE PLANET

By Dan Miller
December 12, 2006

Today, another verbatim exchange with my (now) 8-year old daughter.

MCKENSIE: "Daddy, do you believe in aliens?"
ME: "Do you mean beings from another planet or world?"
MCKENSIE: "Yes, do you think there are aliens living on other planets somewhere?"
ME: "Well yes, I suppose there might be people, or aliens, on another planet far away somewhere in the universe."
MCKENSIE: "Well, if there are people on other planets somewhere else, then they would think of us as aliens.... so we are aliens too, right?"
ME: "I suppose you're right."

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Now, I consider this fairly profound thinking for such a young girl. It's reminiscent of the thought process -- and words written -- by a man named Brewster Higley in 1872 as he sat on the banks of Beaver Creek, looking out at the Kansas sky.
The poem he wrote was later transformed into the classic cowboy song, "Home On The Range."
This is the verse as he wrote it:
How often at night
When the heavens were bright
By the light of the twinkling stars,
Have I stood here amazed
And asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.

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