[I wrote (and drew) this on October 1, 2017 – the day that 58 people were gunned down by a mass shooter at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas. 851 people were injured. It was the deadliest mass shooting in US history, and it was a few days before my son’s birthday.]
Today I am thinking about other planets, because I am not so sure I want to live on this one anymore. This is a drawing of the night sky as seen from Mars. Mars has two moons – Phobos and Deimos – named for the Greek gods of fear and terror, respectively. And Mars, of course, was the Greek god of war. Fear, terror, and war. You can tell that humans did the naming there.
Fun fact: “Extraterrestrial skies” is the scientific term for “the sky” on other planets. It is cute that we say the sky and have done since we thought the world was flat, like there is only one sky. When in actual fact there are who knows how many extraterrestrial skies out there, most never having been seen by human eyes. I suspect I will probably draw a lot more of them. To be honest, you would need telescope for Mar’s extraterrestrial night sky to look like this. From what I understand, Deimos (the moon on the left) is very small and distant. It looks more like a star than a moon, if one is in fact standing on Mars and looking at the sky.
So anyways, we all woke up to (yet more) horrific news in the US today. I hope that imagining a peaceful, faraway moment on Mars helps you to get through the day. It comforts me to remember that the universe is so very big and old – and people are oh so small. I suspect that thought has the opposite effect for most people? Sometimes I think my brain might work differently than other people’s brains. I can’t be other people though, so I don’t know. But I am writing this hoping that it helps someone out there.
Posted with Martian love from Mars.
this is a very nice thought. thank you very much
Thank you so much for the kind words!