A Little Get Away – to Mars Perhaps?

 1) Actually getting to Mars might be a little tricky, but I can see why there is some fascination with leaving this world to visit another one – any other one. Sometimes it seems that the troubles we face here are so overwhelming we can’t possibly get past them, while the challenges of a new life somewhere else seem soooo remote. The fantasy of “what if…” outweighs the fears of “what is…” 

2) But then there would be the whole “building-a-new-home-on-a-distant-rock-without-a-proper-atmosphere-thing” and trying to convince your family that you are not legally insane. Still, the fantasy of starting over – and perhaps – since there isn’t any atmosphere to speak of and there aren’t any critical Martians to laugh – you’d suddenly be known as the greatest thing to land on the forth planet in history. 

3) Once you get your little Quonset-hut-thingy built, and hopefully you had forethought enough to bring along a couple trusty robots, you can send them out to plow up some kind of garden in the dust. Or in a worst-case-scenario, you can always eat your breakfast, lunch, and dinner out of freeze-dried bags which don’t expire for another three centuries. Suddenly, hamburger helper, which had seemed like slumming on a limited income, might start to seem a little more alluring. But forget that. We can do the dust-gardening-thing. Or the robots can – surely. Kale can grown anywhere… 

4) Since there isn’t any recorded life currently existing on Mars, and robots aren’t known for stimulating conversation starters, you might want to bring along a few good books. Of course, you wouldn’t have had a whole lot of room in your Quonset hut, so in fact, your library collection might consist of whatever you can fit on your kindle. Does the Kindle Cloud reach Mars? Well, either way, it’ll be enough to keep you happy for at least a month.

5) You probably brought a long a few photos of family and friends. If all those irritating habits they had, which absolutely drove you crazy and made you want to move to Mars in the first place, start slipping from your memory – well – try making a list. That’ll make you mad again – at least for a few hours.

6) Since you are the one and only citizen on Mars, we can safely assume
there are no wars to speak of. So your’re safe from the draft, at least. Of course, that means that when you do lose your temper, the only one you have to vent your frustrations on is yourself or those bloody robots and they don’t even give the satisfaction of an exasperated eye roll. How much fun is that?

7) Well, Mars was a ton of fun, but I’m glad I’m home now. Next time I get sick of this world, I think I’ll try Jupiter. I hear it lacks a well defined solid surface – but then again, some days – so do I.