Bonsai Bonanza at the Bonsai Museum
Federal Way, a suburb close to Seattle that I never think much about, has the coolest museum! It is not a museum of art or natural history... it is a Bonsai Museum!
The museum is outdoors and the viewers get to slowly wander from tiny tree display to tiny tree display.
Even though everyone thinks of Japan when they think of Bonsai, Bonsai was inspired by a Chinese form of miniature landscaping called penjing. Penjing wasn't as centered on just trees, but more little landscape in general.
Bonsai trees seem magical! They look like they are from an ancient yet miniature forest inhabited by little people and little animals. If an alien came to our world and the found a bonsai tree before anything else, they probably would assume there were such things as little people...and maybe there is!
There are stories from many cultures about small people. The most common story is of a leprechaun which we are familiar with childhood stories of gold at the end of rainbows. Native Americans have many stories of little people. Some of them have hairy faces. Some of them live by the Great Lakes and build nests in the sand. In Greek mythology there were little people that fought a perpetual battle with the cranes. When different cultures share similar mythology, it always makes you wonder. Maybe the continuity between cultures is proof of something? Proof of truth. More likely, proof of humans similarity no matter where we are born. Of course the human imagination would dream of a creature similar to us but different. We still do that to this day with stories of Sasquatch or humanoid alien creatures.
When I use to live somewhere else, one of my neighbors saw little people. They visited her every morning when the neighbor made coffee. They would feel the vibrations of the coffee grinder and sneak from cracks in the wall to visit her. It wasn't true, well at least most likely. But she believed she had these little visitors. I am not sure if the visitors made her happy or scared or some other emotion completely.
When I was in high school, a friend of mine told me there was a certain drug (I don't remember what) that made all the users see the same thing- leprechauns. No matter who they were, they saw leprechauns. She told me this as proof. I don't remember what it was proof of. Proof that leprechauns existed, or else why would everyone see the same thing. Proof that parallel universes existed, because the drug must some how reveal a slip in universes, creating a glimpse into the other world. Proof of shared consciousness. Proof that reality isn't real at all.
In Indonesia, skeletal remains were found of a humanoid that stood about 3 ft 7 inches tall. He is called Homo Flores. His bones were real. He lived 50,000 years ago. Some people still think the Homo Flores lives today in the unexplored jungle forests of Indonesia. Probably they befriend the monkeys and learn the calls of all the birds. When they see the planes creak and roar through the sky, they know the flying monster is no bird, but more proof they must remain small and they must remain hidden. They must remain a secret only revealed in bones and destruction.