illustration by julie morstad in her great book called milk teeth 

“here are a few lessons i’ve learned in my many days on this planet earth. i do love many things about your planet but there are also many things that i dislike. its is not all your fault, so don’t be sad. i think this is how humans are made to behave. i think i will spent more days here, and i will enjoy the many things it has to offer, but i do wish to return to my planet one day. its a bit lonely there but its ok, i have less complications and life is a little easier when you are alone. but here are 3 important things i have observed while being here:

#1-

people in general mean well and they don’t mean to harm one another but they often do. this is not their fault because they can not see the world from another’s eyes. if you are from another planet for example, they don’t simply understand how you see their world. they only see what they can see… only their sadness and their complications. they want you to help them, and of course you do. they want you to be there when they are sad and defeated. but when they are well and good they only want you to be well and good. they have no time for your complications… they already have theirs. and this world of yours has many complication that i did not want to have but now i do too, just like you. but i understand. you have to accept that, and not demand much attention. just go along. just be there for them when they want you. its a fruitless proposition but that is how humans are, even the best ones, and if you must be around them, you have to accept that.

#2-

i learned about love early in my visit. it was quite an interesting experience and i can now see how that basic idea has engulfed your entire population. everything everyone does everyday is to attain that feeling of love. from others, from strangers, from dogs and family and co workers… even from the general public many distences away. everyone is racing and working very hard every day to attain this love. they buy things in order to be loved. they say things in order to attain that love. its peculiar for some one like me. i lived alone, with no one around me. so i couldn’t understand what that was all about. but i now see why… it is a good feeling this love, it’s nice to be loved. but this intangible concept is very vague, even for me. it comes and it goes. it’s there and its not there. it’s like a cloud, even your people who study the clouds can’t tell you much about their destiny or future. just like that they appear and just like that they disappear. i think having experienced this, i know now that it is quite silly and as you say, naive, to want to chase such an ethereal thing. i did not need it or want it before i came here. i will not need it when i leave. but when you are here, you simply get in line with everyone else and follow them in this quest. its funny when you look at this from another view. again its not your fault, maybe you where made this way, or maybe you were conditioned to be this way. for me after i found it and i lost it just once, i realized its not worth the trouble… this is a big ‘complication’… and i understand that you have to live here for ever, so i see why this is so important to you. but my advice, if you plan to be here for long, is to ask yourself why? why such an intangible thing? such an impermanent thing is so important to your kind? especially when you know what i already told you in #1…

#3-

the most difficult complication on your planet comes with visiting your planet for too long. its the realization that what you though was true when you arrived turns out to be false many years later. if i was to see this from my eyes, it would be as if i would live on my planet for many years and one day realize my planet was never there. i would be in space floating alone on no planet at all!! that would be very awkward. and very disorienting. i don’t think i would like that very much. but out here you will have to go through that many times in your life cycle. again my advise to you is to accept this. i know it was not your fault or your choice to be here, but here you are and here it is. its just one of the complication of your kind. if you where me and could see the world from my eyes then you would not be you. so here you are. you! it is best not to take things literally, not to invest in things or people, or do things that require an outcome. of course it is a bit difficult to go about this in this world of yours like this. so you may choose you don’t have to. but if you do, you must be prepared to float in space alone one day. and it will be very awkward.

i hope this is of some help to some of you. this world of yours has many good things, but it also has many complications. it’s one of the more interesting and curious places i have visited. i wish you all very well.” – verbal excerpts from visual drawing in a book called milk teeth. by cm