Variation 1 from Gaian Variations by Nathan Currier

1. Introduction

Lewis Thomas: Prologue on the Moon

Viewed from the distance of the moon, the astonishing thing about the earth, catching the breath, is that it is alive. Aloft, floating free beneath the moist, gleaming membrane of bright blue sky, is the rising earth, the only exuberent thing in this part of the cosmos. If you could look long enough, you would see the swirling of great drifts of cloud, covering and uncovering the half-hidden masses of land. If you had been looking for a very long, geologic time, you could have seen the continents themselves in motion, drifting apart on their crustal plates, held aloft by the fire beneath. It has the organized self-contained look of a creature alive.

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