Doubling Back
by Pippa Goldschmidt
"The long stone wall receding into the distance, the words that require me to lean forward and peer closely at them, the gravel beneath my feet, even the air laden with traffic fumes – everything has a weight here, pressing me down. As I stand in front of the names, I feel on display, considered by a silent audience. There is only one of me and so, so many of them." |
Paul Klee, Miraculous Landing, 1920
A ferry travelling across the North Sea must take account of the tides, the twice-a-day ebbing and flowing of the sea that is caused by the Moon’s orbit around the Earth. At every port along these coasts, including those identified in my grandfather’s German passport, the timing of the tides will affect the precise route of the ferry and the complex manoeuvres needed to bring it safely to land.
My grandfather made the journey across this water that divides England from continental Europe on at least three occasions, recorded by the immigration authorities when he reached England. The dates and locations of his arrivals are stamped in ink in his passport:
12 Sept 36 Harwich
5 Sept 37 Harwich
6 Sept 38 Newhaven
What I find curious about these dates is their periodicity. Each year shortly before the autumnal equinox, my grandfather left his temporary residence in London and travelled to his original home in Germany for a few weeks, before returning. These journeys back east could be considered to be regressive or retrograde motions, like those that become apparent when we observe the orbits of planets.
The word ‘planet’ itself means ‘wanderer’ in ancient Greek because, against the stable background of the stars, each of the planets can be identified by its own distinctive path. Mars is observed moving from west to east for nearly two years at a time, before appearing to rapidly reverse direction and going backwards for a period of two months, and then changing direction yet again and resuming its original path. It wasn’t until the development of the Sun-centred model of the planets’ orbits that these peculiar loops were demoted to nothing more than a visual trick, a consequence of observations being made from the Earth – whose own position is constantly shifting. [...]
My grandfather made the journey across this water that divides England from continental Europe on at least three occasions, recorded by the immigration authorities when he reached England. The dates and locations of his arrivals are stamped in ink in his passport:
12 Sept 36 Harwich
5 Sept 37 Harwich
6 Sept 38 Newhaven
What I find curious about these dates is their periodicity. Each year shortly before the autumnal equinox, my grandfather left his temporary residence in London and travelled to his original home in Germany for a few weeks, before returning. These journeys back east could be considered to be regressive or retrograde motions, like those that become apparent when we observe the orbits of planets.
The word ‘planet’ itself means ‘wanderer’ in ancient Greek because, against the stable background of the stars, each of the planets can be identified by its own distinctive path. Mars is observed moving from west to east for nearly two years at a time, before appearing to rapidly reverse direction and going backwards for a period of two months, and then changing direction yet again and resuming its original path. It wasn’t until the development of the Sun-centred model of the planets’ orbits that these peculiar loops were demoted to nothing more than a visual trick, a consequence of observations being made from the Earth – whose own position is constantly shifting. [...]
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