My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety. - Wordsworth, "My Heart Leaps Up", 1802
Rainbows have captured the imaginations of many myths and cultures. It is often seen as a link between the heavens and earth (e.g. the Norse mythical bridge Bifrost). In genesis 9:11-17 the rainbow is a sign of God's covenant with people. In Chinese the character for rainbow imagines the rainbow as a dragon (made even more vivid in early pictographs). In Irish legends leprechauns guard pots of gold at the end of a rainbow. In current popular imagination the rainbow is a sign of beauty, of diversity, of wonder.1 The rainbow is occasion to celebrate.
Interestingly, the rainbow has not always been interpreted, as the saying goes, as “rainbows and butterflies” and everything nice! In Greek mythology, the rainbow is connected to the goddess Iris, messenger of the gods, who often carries messages of war and retribution. In Hindu mythology, the rainbow is Indra's bow, used for shooting arrows of lightning. The Sumu people had a tradition of hiding their children in huts to keep them from looking or pointing at the malign rainbow spirits. In Amazoninan cultures the rainbow is associated with illnesses and there is a tradition of closing one's mouth at the sight of a rainbow to prevent disease.
I always imagined that rainbows had mythical weight because they are somewhat rare and wondrous occassions. So I was floored to find that they are ubiquitous in Maui, Hawaii! And by that I mean I saw more than one rainbow every day. Thick rainbows, thin rainbows, double rainbows, I even glimpsed the end of a rainbow over the ocean, but alas did not see any gold. A meteorologist has written about the secrets of “The Best Rainbows on Earth,” detailing the physics and showing some stunning photos. Calling Hawaii the “rainbow state” is a literal statement of fact, not an exaggeration.
I saw so many rainbows that I wondered: what is it like to see a rainbow every day of your life, from birth to death? Did the Hawaiians, who thought of the rainbow as the work of the messenger goddess Anuenue, find the gods particularly playful, chatty and communicative?2 Does one ever get used to seeing something as delightful as a rainbow? Would the rainbow lose its mystery or charm? Does one begin to ignore it, or tune it out? Or does the rainbow fade into the natural fabric of one's being, only becoming consciously felt when it's missing? What other mysteries and joys do we live with every day but forget?
Not really related: other Hawaii musings
mountain
Clouds, thick, low, and lush hide verdant mountain peaks and cast shadows over sheer valley walls that open out to the flat plains below, where I stand, looking on. They beckon to me, come see, come in, come back.
ocean
Our boat rocks up and down at the mercy of the waves which will as they will and do as they do, passing by beneath us, like the undulations of a flock of sea serpents or sea dragons coursing by.
Rainbows are also philosophically interesting. One of my favorite essays is on the physics of rainbows as a way to explore objectivity and subjectivity.
In relation to the rainbow as a LGBTQ symbol, in Bulgarian legends, it is said that a person who walks beneath a rainbow will change genders!
There are at least 22 documented phrases for all sorts of different kinds of rainbows in the Hawaiian language, from double rainbow to lunar rainbows to (full!) circle rainbows.