Musings on The Voyage to Mars, Werewolves in Space, and Sinking Ships.

When my kids were small they talked about going to Mars.

There were rules and conditions.

They had to be able to come back.

2. They’d only travel with people they liked.

3. No Werewolves. They thought a lot about that one. The whole full moon things was a total unknown in space because it was in space and not on Earth. It gets complicated.

4. There had to be dogs or cats along, or maybe both.

5. No auto tuned music would be allowed on the voyage. None.

6. Uncle Max would not be allowed to come.

Why pray tell couldn’t Uncle Max come along?

It seemed like almost every ship my brother Max ever traveled on sank, or was stranded on a sand bar, or otherwise damaged.

Back in the day, before airplanes, if you wanted to go anywhere fast you took a boat. Yes, there were trains, but they didn’t go everywhere. They didn’t go to Europe, or Asia, Africa, or Australia.

Max was on the Titanic. In 1880 a ship he was traveling in sunk off the northern coast of California. He’d been on two riverboats that became stuck on sandbars. If he is in a canoe or other small boat it is guaranteed to sink or capsize.

For someone who lives by the ocean Max is content to stay on land. I understand. Despite the fact that we’re Vampires I get seasick out on the ocean. An ocean voyage makes me feel indeed dead. I love the ocean, but these days I stick to the shore, or take a plane.

My eldest brother is still young in Vampire years, only 172, so he might venture out again over the seas, or maybe even in space. Though I can’t imagine him in space in the small constraints of current space stations and rocket ships.

In the world of my children’s imaginations their ships were huge with giant dance floors and greenhouses as big as football fields.

Max laughs and says if he goes out on a sea voyage again he’ll end up on an ice flow like Frankenstein’s creature. I doubt that, but it is sort of uncomfortable to think about it.

Now that my kids are grown neither one of them want to take a voyage to Mars anymore. They’ll leave it to someone else, and stay here. They want to save the planet we live on now.

As we take the voyage around the Sun, we need to appreciate the beauty and wonder of where we live, and not take it for granted, or abuse it. That is the goal of my children, to be responsible citizens of Earth.

Then again, I still wonder how a Werewolf would do in space.

~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman