Looking Out and Back

Ever since The New York Times reported last week that scientists had gotten a hint of life on a planet called K2-18b 120 light-years away, I’ve been wondering if K2-18b might be getting their first look at us too, and if so, what do they see?

On Wednesday, a library book I’d put a hold-request on three months ago finally became available. It was the same day the New York Times article came out so my imagination’s been busy. Orbital, written by Samantha Harvey, is fiction, but Harvey has clearly done her homework. What she describes is the lives of six astronauts living and working together on a space station, orbiting the Earth sixteen times a day: sixteen sunrises, sixteen sunsets, every angle of every curve, landmass, ocean, and weather pattern that makes up the Earth’s existence. The astronauts offer their minds, bodies, and the comfort of land and gravity, to get a better understanding of life on Earth as well as the workings of the universe beyond us. And it’s not just data they’re collecting. It’s emotional, philosophical, and political understanding too. Harvey makes it possible to simultaneously feel what it’s like to be traveling 17,400 miles an hour above the Earth in a metal box, while looking back at the Earth, outward to the universe, and inward at oneself. It’s a profoundly powerful and relevant book.

A year ago, I finished a song for Earth Day called “Evelyne.” What I was imagining back then was what Earth would say to humanity if she could sing. In the song, I imagined Earth calling us Evelyne. It’s a love song to humanity. A plea, really, for all of us to love her back.

Love,
Bar

Evelyne 

When you and I began I was still in bloom
But your longing grew and wandered off with you

Evelyne, come back to me
when the winter moon fades away and turns to morning dew
my ingenue, I’ll still be here for you

Evelyne, come back for me
Let’s start again  
don’t let our story end 

Remember me when I was whole
when all your dreams were mine to hold for you

Evelyne, you and I were always meant to be
Can’t you see? 
your home is here with me

Evelyne, come back to me and live
Evelyne, Evelyne