There were monsters under my bed when I was a kid.  They were harmless in the light, and they couldn’t penetrate a cover of blankets, but the beasts were ferocious when the lights went out.   The light switch on my bedroom wall was about six feet from the bed so I was exposed for that period of time between the light going out and getting under the covers – about two seconds. 

“If only I could travel faster than the speed of light”, I thought, “I could escape certain death”.

I got pretty fast at flipping the switch and lunging under the sheets, but there was always a chance the monster could get me between the wall and the bed.

We are in the southern hemisphere, looking up at the star cluster Alpha Centauri.  The closest star to our sun, Proxima Centauri, is in that constellation.  Proxima isn’t visible to the naked eye, but astronomers know it is there, and that it has three planets in orbit around it. 

When I was seven, I dreamt of going to Africa.  Now that I am nearing seventy, I am setting my sights a little farther away.  I would like to go to Proxima b, a planet with about the same mass as earth orbiting the star Proxima Centauri, within the habitable zone.  I don’t know how Proxima b could be more beautiful than Africa, but I would like to find out.

I don’t have sixty years to wait this time, so I need to get started right away.  It is only 4.2465 light years to Proxima-b and, according to Crystal Gayle, there is a “bold ship bound for Alpha Centauri”, with a “mad crew of dreamers and poets and clowns”.  At monster-racing speed, I could be there in a year or two. 

Crystal Gayle – We Must Believe in Magic

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