A Pivot In Time (Alien Artifact, #2)

by Douglas E. Richards

“You act as if none of us have ever participated in a telepathic séance run by an alien AI before.”

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” —Albert Einstein

“Fewer and fewer of us are learning history, and even fewer are putting it into perspective. We’ve begun to judge the actions of those in the past based on our own standards.

“There are those who can twist any message for their own purposes. Those who can use a message of love to incite hate. Inclusion to create exclusion. And peace to incite violence.

Live your life in a way that’s kind and considerate. Do and say anything that makes you happy, as long as you aren’t hurting anyone else. Treat others the way you would want to be treated.

Had never considered that unpredictability, not certainty, is what made life so exhilarating.

It was so easy to get mired down in the day-to-day struggles of life, and lose sight of the wonders of existence. How often did most people take just a few minutes to go outside at night and gaze skyward, to marvel at the tiny piece of the cosmos viewable from Earth? To contemplate the infinity of the universe and the complexity and brilliance of Nature in all its endless forms?

Human beings had a horrible habit of taking things for granted.

Struggle in pursuit of achievement, of accomplishment, was one of the most important aspects of human life,

Thomas Paine had written, “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.”

The universe is impossible. Consciousness is impossible. The idea of an entire universe arising from something smaller than an atom is impossible. The idea of a God having always existed without need of a creator is impossible. So who the hell knows what’s really going on?