Daily Prompt: Worldly Encounters

(The friendly, English-speaking extra-terrestrial you run into outside your house is asking you to recommend the one book, movie or song that explains what humans are all about. What do you pick?)

Oy. I have only ONE answer to give him?

“Okay, Mr. E.T. Do you want a serious answer? Funny? Political? Religious? Historical? Hysterical? Philosophical? Sociological? What aspect of humanity are you interested in?”

“Say what?”

“Well, I mean, do you want a book about humankind from the beginning of the history of the world? Or about how human civilzation developed? Or do you want maybe a movie about how we relate to each other? A romance? A comedy? How about something by one of our most famous playwrights, William Shakespeare? Or a history of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, or maybe of the Third Reich?”

“Say WHAAAT?”

“Come on, you have to help me out here! We humans are not just one-dimensional, you know. We have a lot more to us than you think. I need to know exactly what kind of information you want. How about a medical book? Grey’s Anatomy? Or would you rather know about our art, music, literature, inventions–”

“STOP! Stop it right now! You’re driving me crazy!”

“Hey, man, you’re the one who asked. Look, this is really hard! Don’t you understand we’ve been around for a long time, and there are zillions of books,movies, and songs that would tell you all about us. How can I pick just one? Do YOU have just ONE book, song or movie that would explain YOU to US?”

“Well, of course!”