The last time I captured a rainbow with a camera was in Niagara
Falls, New York, 1994. If you’ve been to
Niagara Falls, you know this is no great feat.
Rainbows appear there regularly through the mist created by the falls.
A rainbow in the desert, however, is a little more
rare.
So I was ecstatic when, upon leaving my daughter’s middle
school open house last week, we saw not one, but two rainbows arching across
the open desert.
My daughter glanced up, remarked it was pretty, and went
back to her texting. After all, there
were important matters at hand. She had
just gotten her middle school schedule at the open house. Classes needed to be compared! Teachers needed to be discussed! Besides, when you’re twelve, you expect to
see a double rainbow more than once in your lifetime. When you’re 40-something, you realize you may
not.
I pulled the car over to the side of the road, jumped out,
and began snapping photos with my iPhone.
These were the images I captured.
I am no rainbow expert, but from what I understand, when we see a rainbow, we are seeing the
various colors of light refracted at their respective different angles through
raindrops. When we see a double rainbow,
we are seeing this refraction, then a reflection, and the refraction
again. Here are two sites where you can
read about the science behind a double rainbow:
I would like to think seeing the double rainbow was a great
sign of something – perhaps the middle school transition will go smoothly, even
perfectly, for my daughter? But deep
down I know better. The transition from
elementary school to middle school will be a big adjustment.
So I simply stood there in the middle of the desert and
appreciated those rainbows, drinking in their outrageous beauty, until they
began to fade. And I will make a similar
effort to appreciate every moment possible of my daughter’s middle school
years, because I know they are once in a lifetime, and they will be over all
too quickly. Hey, there you go.
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