On the ground our world might seem green like the deep green spruce forests. It might be a burnt ochre like the Saharan desert, or yellow, like the fields in August. But seen from the outside, our world is blue. Blue like the sky – even if one is in the sky looking down at the world. So perhaps, then, it is the sky that is blue, between us and the world?
From the stratosphere, our marble is blue because of the sunlight that scatters in the oxygen- and nitrogen-rich sky. If we had more sulphur in the sky our marble would be yellow like Venus – but we would not be able to breathe, at least not with our current physiology.
Yellow is the color of the sun, energy, and joy. It is also the color of warning, both in traffic and on a wasp. Whereas blue is calming, quieting, and heart-rate lowering, like the constant sky and sea. But what if we lived on Venus? Would we then be conditioned to feel calm, secure, and at peace when surrended by yellow?
Random thoughts in the stratosphere above Stockholm on an April evening.
(Stockholm, Sweden; April 2016)
(Loviisa, Finland; March 2016)
Yesterday spring was here. Today it is somewhere else. So will I, too, be. Catching the sun before it’s gone.
Some take the bus to work. I take the ATR-72 prop plane. Some admire the sunset over the city when going home. I admire the sunset over the Baltic Sea, from 20,00 ft above. And this week was the first week of the year when we flew home before darkness sank over us.
In just a little while there will be a scent of the sea mingled with the scent of meadowsweet, ducks gossiping with each other while chewing seaweed, and night time picnics under the yellow overweight August moon. Because the ice is gone and I saw eleven swans today.
(Helsinki, Finland; March 2016)
This blue marble 