Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Epiphany: In Space There Is No Sideways

Earthrise, Apollo 8
December 29, 1968

From Great Images in NASA:
"This view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts as they came from behind the Moon.... The photo is displayed here in its original orientation...."

I love stuff that knocks me sideways (gently)--like this reminder that "up and down" are strictly local concepts, serving our specific biology.
It helps me somersault more lightly through inner space.

5 comments:

  1. Awesome photo. God, the beauty, of the photo, of the reality, of the possibilities

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  2. MMMM....ethereal beauty...living "down under" taught me many things, among them how arbitrary and one-sided history and geography can be, depending on who is doing the story-telling and/or the mapping/imaging. And, it took me a few years' living there to realize why there was something about the moon that I had found unsettling... we see it from a different perspective in the southern hemisphere. I remember trying to explain this to Avra, who was only two at the time, outside on the dirt road in front of our little house, with a rubber ball and an Aussie penny... that if we ever got to the other side of the equator, the face on the moon would look different. Of course, I was so excited and felt sorta dumb when I understood how long it'd taken me to figure it out and how I had to reassure myself with my improvised space schema. I have also been so fortunate to see the auroras borealis and australis from our Home.

    Happy to be Here and Enjoying your BlogWonderments!

    Stefalala

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  3. I love the upside-down perspective you bring to my blog, Stef! Thanks!

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  4. Makes me go hmmmm. Fascinating.

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  5. It's kind of like messing with gender pronouns--shakes up the brain, eh?

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