“Today astronomers have released a photograph of Earth taken from very far away. From the rings of Saturn, actually. They sweep through the upper half of the frame, a vast tan curve against the cool obsidian of space. The Earth, meanwhile, isn’t how I remember it at all. It is reduced to a round blue bead, harmless and pristine, whereas up close, when photographed from the vantage of the moon, for example, it has always struck me as menacing and grave. From Saturn’s rings, however, the Earth is adorable. An ornamental button fallen from some stylish coat. One hardly feels sorry for it. The real object of sympathy, in the end, is the sacrificial satellite, sent out on a thirteen-year journey from which it will never return. Soon, I read, it will dive down to the dissipated surface of the planet at incinerating speeds, and so be reduced to dust. I wonder: Why not settle for the rings?”
—“Berlin Dispatches to Remember Me By,” J. Jezewska Stevens