The dark room of the mind

By Sara Sarwari

It is again a rainy Saturday, Emma and I are sitting on the couch and looking at the raindrops hitting the window. It has been years since the both of us descended from our planet to earth. 

We always dreamt of living on earth. Earth was a loyal place, a dreamy vacation which was governed by humans, or so we thought. Human, the one who is an extraordinary creature, who has seized the earth and is able to conquer the whole galaxy. The only creatures with such complicated brains. Brains, the ‘ones’ which make  human  beings different from other creatures; giving them the extraordinary ability of thinking, imagining, cognition or ideology. The way they are making their lives easier by new inventions, discovery and creation is incomparable.

When we look at the earth from our alienated point of view we see how much emotions are felt by humans. The Physics of earth can be found on other planets too but that metaphysics is very special for human beings. The way they enjoy the rain or sitting on the beach and watching the sunset…

This resuscitated a wish for us to travel to the earth, so we made a wish to the wishing tree and we came.

In these years we tried to live like humans or experience human life. We met a lot of people and made a lot of friends.

That night, I looked at Emma and asked, “isn’t it beautiful?” How enjoyable is the life of humans; how pleasant it is to smell the rain. Being able to embrace nature, colourful flowers or lying on the greens and staring at that blue sky and feeling that reality is very loyal. It is a different feeling that sprouts a light of hope in your heart when a tiny butterfly sits on your hand. How exciting it is to be able to get excited when you see a rainbow or shining stars on a dark night.

Human interactions on the other hand  are so remarkable. The way that they seem to understand each other’s pains without any words. The way they get sad when their loved one is sad or when they forget all their pains when their loved one is happy. They are able to care for each other or calm each other down and most importantly being able to love in such unique ways. There are many stories that we heard about humans on how they sacrifice for each other or how they stand for each other. They are willing to give their lives without any hesitation to keep  others alive. This is so rare among other organisms. They can heal each other with a little smile. They are actually living our dream. Isn’t that exciting?

Emma smiled and said that being human was not as exciting as we thought. It is just one side of the coin. On the other side there are also pains that cannot be brushed away easily. They have their own struggles too.

After living as a human for years, I realised that humans are still confused. From outside they look so connected to each other but when you come closer you see they have divided their world into good and bad although the good  is not always good and the opposite is true. They are created and connected around ideas that don’t really exist like countries, nationality, or politics.

They still divide humans into men and women yet they cannot tolerate equality.

Each one of them wishes to be the other. Reality is something they do not want to interact with or they do not want to expose it.

They do not know the value they hold, the value of their time or loved ones.

While in one part of the earth someone is dying of hunger and all he wants is to be able to one day bring good food to his family. In the other corner of the world  someone who has a lot of wealth suffers from the monotony of his life…

They cannot find internal peace. It is not easy to be aware of the cruelty and injustice that was done to you but you cannot do anything.

You get tired sometimes…

It is painful…

Maybe Emma  was right. Dreaming of being a human was not that cool…

Maybe we should find a way to go  back…but this time happier…

But again, I’m just an alien, I could be wrong, perhaps?

6 February, 2023