I am featuring the Earthrise photograph today because it, more than any other image, evokes the “Spaceship Earth” worldview. It reminds us that crew survival depends upon working together for the common good, prudent use of our limited resources, and taking care of the fragile blue bubble that feeds us and shelters us from the ravages of space.
Poet Archibald MacLeish expressed his rea ction to the photograph in a poem entitled “Riders on Earth Together, Brothers in Eternal Cold," published on page 1 of The New York Times on Christmas day, 1968.
“To see the earth as it truly is, small blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold—brothers who know now they are truly brothers”
Context makes this photograph especially important. Taken at the end of one of the most socially and politically tumultuous years in recent memory, Earthrise is powerful for what it does not show – political boundaries, ideological conflicts, the struggle for power, position, and resources. It does not show gender, race, religion, right, or wrong. Instead, it shows one world, one path through the universe, and one sun to light the way. It shows all of us and our shared journey through the cosmos.
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Earth Day – April 22, 2014