The truth is out there?

The other day, I was sitting with Jennifer as she watched the movie Men in Black for, oh, say, the hundredth time. (She's really got an alien thing going. She's also watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind.) As I watched this movie, I recalled reading in a book a theory that the Men in Black are really aliens. At one point, Jennifer turned to me and asked, "Mommy, how do aliens die?"

While mentally wondering how in the world she could ask that after watching Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones shoot up a bunch of alien baddies, I shrugged and answered, "I don't know. Jennifer, I don't even believe in aliens."

She glared at me, all angry and defensive. "They are real," she argued, then went back to watching the movie.

I could only smile, debating whether I should ask, "Oh, yeah, how do you know? Have you seen them?" But then I stopped myself. How could I ask her that when I was sending her to church to learn about God, who she has never seen yet prays to every night? It might confuse her. (The closest I have ever come to "seeing" God was when His face appeared to me outlined in the stars in a dream I had.)

Well, I did used to believe in aliens, many years ago. I have since matured. LOL As embarrassed as I am to admit it, I was once terrified of being abducted by aliens. (I guess the whole "alien abduction craze" really got to me. That movie, Fire in the Sky, gave me nightmares!) But I just don't believe in them anymore. Not in the real world, anyway. That's not to say that I won't include an alien in any of my stories. (Heck, I've got a story going with a vampire, and I don't believe in those, either!) Maybe it would take something like a visitation or something like that to convince me that aliens exist. In the past, I've read stories of alien abductions and believed them. Now I only thing they're hooey.

It's really interesting, though, that a 6-year-old would be sooo convinced of the existence of extraterrestrials. Maybe it's my fault I ever introduced her to alien movies in the first place (starting with her favorite, E.T.) or maybe I should have known better than to buy her books with aliens in them. I have told her numerous times that movies are only stories, they're usually not real and no one has ever really seen an alien. Yet somehow she has it in her head that aliens exist. (My daughter, the future Fox Mulder. Or should I say....the next Agent J! LOL)

I guess in some way, this can be seen as what we believe in even though we can't see what we believe in. I believe in God because God has touched my life in His own way. He touched my soul and performed miracles for me. Yet I also believe in ghosts...because I have seen ghosts. But I don't believe in aliens. Maybe if I saw them, or something, then I would believe. I don't know. (Oddly enough, I've seen pictures of ghosts people have posted on the Internet and tried to think of how they were faked. Haha.)

Nevertheless, no matter what it is that has her constantly fascinated with aliens, I have to be careful that she doesn't get too obsessed with them. I have to monitor just how often she'll watch those movies (well, we already have a TV-time-limit rule, anyway), just how many pictures she draws of aliens and just how often she brings them up for discussion. She can wonder about them, she can use her imagination with them and even try to learn about them. But I just need to make sure that fascination she has with aliens just doesn't go overboard.