Tilted Earth
thinking through the duplicity of being here and there at once
Recently waking up to this frosty early-winter landscape in Kansas City, a day after speaking with a colleague in New Zealand who was on her way to eat mussel fritters at the summer beach market, has me thinking in new ways about the earth’s tilt.
How unnatural will crisscrossing the globe, and the tilt itself, be? Having two summers, and hardly a winter, in one year?
Soon, my family and I will leave the winter we know in Kansas City and disembark into an Australian summer we have never experienced before. Current preparations at our house include tons of paperwork: visa finalizations, school enrollments, document gathering, and suitcase considerations. Current preparations in Australia, thanks to our thoughtful landlord Robert, include bike repairs, seedling plantings, and coordinations with neighbors for garden care before we arrive in Canberra.
Robert’s goal is for us to enjoy vine tomatoes the moment we arrive. His photos of these little healthy plants, and their representation of a promise to our family in the near future, are truly the brightest spot in the drudgery and stress of endless planning, packing, and document filing.
One part of our reality is nearing the more shaded, inward-looking, side of the earth’s tilt. The other part of our reality is alive and growing outward, from within the brighter side of the earth’s tilt.
Printing-in-progress of my new Port series, summer 2023.
This is a seamless and balanced duality, existing naturally all at once, moving towards similar goals from both sides of their shared pivot.
It’s so wonderful that the earth is round.