We have seen the sun occasionally this week, but not a lot. Today looks promising and I’m sitting out on the patio watching birds of prey hovering in the sky, and the breeze ruffling the two olive trees in the garden. The forecast is heavy rain and we’re having a late start in deciding what to do. Being on holiday with a two year old obviously involves constraints.
MsX has a sticker book of the solar system and space exploration and she’s skilled in placing the stickers precisely. She knows the names of the planets and yesterday when I was drawing a picture of her and asked her what pattern she wanted on her dress - stars or flowers - she said “Saturn.” Saturn is her favourite planet and she likes its moon Titan too.
When Lux and Cece were tiny I found a video online called Planets for Kids, which goes through the solar system with an accompanying song. it’s now a a favourite with MsX and we watch it over and over, as you do with toddlers. The tune is not jaunty like so many toddler tunes: it’s measured and rather melancholy, though very attractive.
It begins “I am the sun, I’m a burning ball of fire. I am very big indeed. Life on Earth depends on me. I am the sun.”
Dave has always told me that he finds the immensity of the universe, and Man’s inconsequential existence in the face of it, to be a comfort. I’m beginning - after 50 years - to understand.
When everything “OUT THERE” is so brutal and so threatening, and it’s hard to find hope in politicians or in the future, I’m finding the planets video very comforting. MsX likes Saturn best. I like the sun. The sun might be behind the clouds where we are, but it’s there.
Poem shown here by permission of the poet and his publisher.
3 comments:
Bless Derek Mahon.
I too felt the comfort of perspective this weekend, flying high above tidy parcels of French fields and the astonishing snow-capped Alps. The far cities were indeed beautiful and bright. It was good to be reminded.
This sounds like Thea, but you haven’t signed it!
Thank you. xx
Xx
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