@Cmdr_Hadfield posted this photo of Seattle to Twitter on April 6, 2013, and wrote, "Seattle looking nice in the sunshine."
Dear Commander Hadfield,
I was riding the bus into downtown Seattle when your photo of Seattle appeared on my phone's tiny screen. As soon as I had the chance, I sat down in front of my computer, the one with the big monitor, and zoomed in to retrace my route, following the tiny lines that run from my house into downtown.
I live close to Sea-Tac, Seattle's airport - just off the left edge of the image. Flights that use the northern approach to land bank over my neighborhood. I'm familiar enough with the view that I can recognize specific landmarks. In your photo, if I narrow my eyes a little, I can see the pale grayish lines that mark my neighborhood's two north-south arterials. If it were possible to zoom in further, I could see the roof of my house, with patches of lawn in the front and back.
There's another landmark in the photo that really speaks to me: a skinny squiggle of a line connecting the big blue of Puget Sound to the smaller - but still expansive - blue of Lake Washington. There's the ship canal and the Ballard Locks, which has a fish ladder - a miracle of forward-thinking engineering. Built in 1917, the fish ladder has chutes that allow migrating salmon to pass downstream into the open waters of the Pacific. And after they've explored the expanses of that great ocean, something calls them home again. They find their way through the fish ladder back to the place where they were hatched. I'm weirdly obsessed by their stubborn drive to get back home.
And here's where things start to get all metaphysical. We're not all as bold or driven by biology as the salmon, but humans are great explorers. We want so badly to know what's out there. But we seem to be hardwired to find our way home, too. Your view from the International Space Station looks both ways - out into the great expanse of space and back at the place we all call home.
Forget about zooming in on my house. If I could zoom out and zoom out and zoom out in your photo, I'd have the feeling that this entire planet is my - our - home. That is a very good feeling.
I recently found a YouTube video of Shawn Colvin and Ernie - Sesame Street Ernie, of Bert and Ernie fame - singing "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon." Shawn Colvin sings, "Though I'd like to look down on the Earth from above, I would miss all the people and places I love ..." and, "There's so many strange places I'd like to be, but none of them permanently."
You should totally perform that song. It would be a great addition to your songs from space.
Yours from that little smudge of gray in West Seattle,
Pam Mandel
@nerdseyeview
RELATED ON SKYE: 25 Amazing Photos of the International Space Station
