Vantage point

Does this picture have  anything in common with space travel? I'll show you it does:

When I read an interview with André Kuipers, a Dutch physician and astronaut who recently came back to Earth after more than six months in space, what struck me the most was the description of the interior of the station itself. Not so much the equipment and facilities, but the fact that each time you enter a module you need to reassess your position. There is no point of reference, no absolute “floor” or “ceiling”.  Depending on the way you enter, you may find the stationary bike on the ceiling, or a toilet on the wall. No need to panic – you just reposition yourself to fit the situation. For instance, if you need to exercise, you turn “upside down” (which is not the right expression anyway, as there’s no absolute “up” or “down”), and if you need to use the toilet, you turn in such a way that the wall becomes your floor. It makes little sense to protest “Who the hell has moved the toilet again?!”, as it’s common knowledge on the International Space Station that it’s you who moved, not the toilet.

Now, this might be relatively easy to accept and adjust to if you are on a space station, but in our life on Earth it’s rarely the case. We’re so used to our gravitational field that we don't even notice it (I'm delighted to hear though that the cries of the Higgs particles "we're here!" have recently been recognized, which probably won't change the reckless, matter-of-fact attitude most of us have to the wonders we're immersed in anyway). Our world is so full of established certainties (up-down, east-west,  right-left) that we don’t even attempt to imagine that it all could be different. Worse even, we extrapolate those certainties onto other, non-directional, domains. We tend to know better what should be where, who should be doing what, what others should think/feel/say… After all, the ground is on the ground and the skies are in the skies. Sometimes we step into a situation and know directly it is no good and needs to be changed.

 “My stationary bike on the ceiling?! – no way!”

“My husband/wife/partner is leaving me?! – no way!”

I’m not comparing husbands to stationary bikes, nor am I a promoter of divorce. What I want to say is that sometimes it’s not the surroundings that have secretly been adjusted against your will, but you yourself that has entered the module in a different way (e.g. upside down, or with wrong expectations).

The interview with Mr. Kuipers has been a great inspiration. Next time I’m greeted by a colleague with a grumpy half-hallo, instead of getting upset, I’ll leave the office and re-enter it a moment later. Upside down.

Sticking to your own vantage point may be a great disad-vantage.