[This is written for my daughter Trinity, and my mother Katrina]
“They don’t like it! They don’t like the dancing!”
“Calm down Galileo. Focus on what is important.”
“I can’t be silent Giovanni. They won’t make me!”
“Galileo, come back to earth. Now tell me. Are your bills paid?”
“Mostly. I have a teaching job from the University where I teach the sons of the Councillors and merchants how to calculate how far a projectile will fly from a catapult. Good for leading military jobs.”
“And your family Galileo?”
“Oh, not so great. I can’t afford the dowry for my daughter. She will not marry well. ”
“Have you got a plan for that Galileo?”
“Oh I don’t know. I suppose I’ll have to put her into a convent.”
“You can do better than that Galileo.”
“I know, but it’s the gravity of the situation Giovanni. Gravity, you see.”
“I’m afraid I’ve missed you.”
“When we shoot a projectile from a catapult, and it flies back to earth, it is the same thing that makes the moon appear in the night sky. Gravity!”
“What has that got to do with anything Galileo?”
“The dance of the moons Giovanni.”
“The moons? There is only one moon!”
“Oh rubbish! Even the Ancient Romans could see that Mars had two moons. And I can see the moons of Jupiter as well!”
“What have moons of Jupiter got to do with anything?
“It is the dance Giovanni! It is an orbital dance. The main dancer is the sun. Then Mars and Jupiter and our Earth dance around the sun, then the moons dance around the planets. A glorious orbital dance!”
“Shhh! Quiet Galileo. You can’t say such things! You’ll get into more trouble!”
“Oh pooh! Whoever heard of a church disapproving of dancing!”
“It’s a new age Giovanni! Just like Leonardo’s Vetruvian man. Of art and science going hand in hand!”
“I beg you Galileo. Play the game. Pay the bills. Teach the students. Get your daughter married off.”
“They want us not to freely reason Giovanni. They want to control what we say!”
“They don’t care what you think and say Galileo, as long as you don’t undermine them.”
“We can measure it Giovanni. We can see it in the telescopes. But they want us to say the sun and planets dance around the Earth!”