A spaceship called Earth
Dear friends,
A couple of weeks ago, I got laid low by a horrible virus and so had to take a hiatus from my free Friday newsletter. Then one week turned into two as I decided to use my spring teaching break (I’m a member of the Creative Writing faculty at Teesside University) to spend some much-needed time with my family. Thank you so much to those of you who reached out to ask how and where I am!
This week’s three things for our creative resistance is a moon-inspired bumper issue! 🌑
🌓 ✒️ And our next WRITE! Together live session on Zoom for paid members is this Sunday 19 April at 4pm UK time ✒️ 🌓 All the details at the bottom of this letter.
1.
In the midst of all the other awful news, I became completely obsessed with the Artemis II moon mission. As it launched, I felt irritated about all the dollars that I thought might have been better spent on technologies to combat climate change (the decarbonisation of transport systems, for example). By Day 2, the four extraordinary humans inside the Integrity had begun to change my mind. By Day 5 and that 40-minute LOS, I felt personally responsible for keeping them up there, safe inside their craft, through the sheer force of my imagination 😂 😂 😂; and as we approached splashdown, I was utterly in the grip of the human story.
Why?
Well, for me, it’s about the unique perspective that the four astronauts have brought to my life. It is moments like this one that have really stayed with me:
‘You guys are talking to us because we are on a spaceship really far from earth but you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the Universe, in the cosmos. Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special but we’re the same distance from you and I’m trying to tell you – just trust me – you are special. In all of this emptiness – this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe – you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together… This is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing and that we’ve got to get through this together.’
- Victor Glover, Pilot, Artemis II
Mary Ruefle wrote about this perspective – looking at earth from the moon – in the context of the Apollo moon missions in her essay ‘Poetry and the Moon.’ It’s wonderful.
And Victor for President? 🚀
2.
This idea of the earth as a spaceship is a metaphor that we’ve heard before, of course, but Glover’s words helped me to think of it in a very literal sense.
Imagine the incredible coincidence of a planet evolving so that we can breathe its air freely, with gravity so that we can walk on its surface and drink from its rivers and seas. We don’t need spacesuits and helmets and weighted boots to enjoy living here – and as well as sharing it with lots of other beautiful humans, we also get to share it with all kinds of more-than-human beings, as philosopher David Abrams describes in this video.
I do believe that when we attend – closely and carefully – to the way that we use language, we can change our world for the better.
3.
Finally, as I was looking at the graphics of Artemis II, I thought of the elliptical path of a boomerang, and I remembered this fantastic piece by Tyson Yunkaporta, who writes so brilliantly and provocatively about space-time. (If you have a chance, I really recommend listening to Yunkaporta reading it.)
The race to the moon is fraught with politics, money and dark magic, and perhaps that silvery boomerang called Integrity is a strange meeting between what Yunkaporta calls here ‘the time-stop banditry of the world-eaters’ and the connective love magic that we desperately need.
🌓 ✒️ Our next WRITE! Together live session on Zoom for paid members is this Sunday 19 April at 4pm UK time ✒️ 🌓
Join the creative resistance! Let’s celebrate this spaceship called Earth and our togetherness.
A huge thank you for making space in your inbox for this Friday letter each week and for helping me to keep this human, messy-around-the-edges newsletter free every Friday. If you’d like to receive exclusive monthly video workshops, invitations to six live WRITE! Together sessions per year and bonus mini-courses, you might like to join us as a paid member of WRITE! Club. Annual subscriptions are currently £30 for the year.
💪 Your creative practice is your resistance.
💌 We are stronger together.
Please do help us to grow the resistance by leaving a heart ❤️ or comment below, or by sharing this letter, if you know someone who might like it. And if you’d like to hit ‘reply’ and tell me your thoughts, I always love to hear from you.
In love and solidarity,
Sophie
xoxo