5 Rainbows
“My friend, the panda will never fulfill his destiny, nor you yours, until you let go of the illusion of control.”
A Rainbow is: A display of colors
We loved the use of rainbow colors in the seventies. So full of hope and happiness. We would wear rainbows in our clothing, each item of clothing would demand attention and had to be worn with confidence. We pulled in rainbow stripes within our casual style. We were happy when we wore such clothing.
Robin Williams played a character on TV named Mork. He was terribly ridiculous and apparently this is what the world required. His clothing attire consisted of rainbow suspenders. Soon after the show became a success, everyone wanted them, including myself. Rainbow thongs (not the underwear AND we didn’t call them flip flops), Rainbow ski sweaters, down vests and jackets, and Rainbow TUBE TOE SOCKS! I loved my rainbow tube toe socks! It was about the colors of ALL of them! I had a rainbow candle that I would light each night in my bedroom when I needed some alone time.
Peter Max was a famous pop artist who encompassed psychedelic imagery, a wide spectra of color, and unique portraits. I read once that he was inspired as a child by an astronomer that sparked his fascination with the universe and greatly influenced his art. His style reminded me of the Yellow Submarine cover album by the Beatles.
I loved dressing like Peter Max’s paintings. I felt so helplessly happy! At the time, Vietnam was ending, but aside from my MIA/POW bracelets and my dad’s work with the YMCA, the Vietnam war was too far away to really understand. I was a ‘tween and then a teen during this time and my life was simply about colors and not about the drab greens and browns of a jungle war a million miles away. I suppose we were never really taught about the turmoil in Vietnam. Right or wrong, as a child we were only shown happy, colorful images walking around in super bright rainbow colors. I wonder to keep us from even asking about the Vietnam war? A war seldom mentioned if at all, and hardly as colorful as we dressed.
Looking closer to the art of Peter Max, most faces were stoic in contrast to the saccharin mix of bright colors. His rainbow art makes you think, maybe in some way alerting us to be more knowledgeable and not too daffy happy. A call to color with some thought behind it.
A Rainbow is: A symbol of hope in many cultures
In 2019 our family gathered around a bountiful table of food and conversation, my family displayed their many colors in forms of skin tone, eye color and hair texture. A Heinz 57 variety of humans who gather infrequently together but share a common source who remind themselves of their connectedness. We vary in language, political belief systems, religion, color of skin, heritage and most likely much more, if I were to dig deeper. And yet we are capable of setting these things aside so that we can gather for a meal and long awaited/much needed conversation about the things we DO have in common.
During this intended gathering just prior to the pandemic, we were gifted 5 rainbows over a Thanksgiving weekend. Taking for granted the enjoyment of untethered gatherings and the freedom to gather in close proximities. We knew not of a virus or its pending arrival and CDC-imposed isolation mandates. Prior to this event, we lived in the abundance and ease of family dinner gatherings without worries of illness or frailty. The simplest of pleasures buoyed us: bustling kitchen activity, close proximity of a quiet conversation, a hug. Within months, all these activities would be called into question with warnings of infection and illness. Everything we knew would change.
But for now, for this innocent moment, we took part in a Turkey Trot, stayed up all night preparing a special broth for a Thanksgiving dinner, slept slumber-party-style on the floor and couches near a roaring fire in the living room, smoked cigars in the front yard, took long walks along the beach, threw our bodies down a steep sand dune, and witnessed a phenomenal natural wonder of bright light of many colors: A Rainbow.
We’ve seen rainbows our entire lives and perhaps even took them for granted, but during this long weekend, we saw one each day of our gathering - with a double rainbow on the last day. An offering of Hope, not yet quite knowing that we needed it.
A Rainbow is: A promise of better times to come
Townspeople of Coloma, California, experienced an abundance of rainbows over a spring weekend one year. Causing great notice, a series of double rainbows were witnessed. In a single rainbow, the sunlight spreads into a spectrum of colors from red to violet. But in a double rainbow, the colors are inverted, with red appearing on the inside and violet on the outside. Due to its reversal of colors, a double rainbow represents the movement from earth to heaven and is considered to be a sign of good fortune and future success in Eastern cultures.The first arc represents the material world and the second arc signifies the spiritual realm. A double rainbow forms due to an optical illusion when sunlight enters a raindrop and creates two internal reflections before the rays exit the droplet.
A double rainbow is considered a symbol of transformation. As we witnessed our daily dose of didactic renderings of dispersions of sun’s light by atmospheric rain, did we understand, at the time, it’s gift? (Did we understand that last sentence?) Did we truly take notice of the present?
A Rainbow is: An emoji commonly used to express LGBTQ+ identity and pride
Most recently, I heard a story on NPR about a series of pandemics occurring simultaneously. The reporter was writing about our Civil Rights Pandemic, our Environmental Pandemic, our Social Justice Pandemic. In SLC, I felt like I was marching up to the Capitol monthly! There was so much to say and so much to do, and all the while rules and regulations about social distancing and mask wearing. But one thing we knew for sure, NONE of it could be or should be ignored. So, we organized our students, we formed our groups, we made our signs, we coordinated with parents and city council representatives and we marched.
To say and do nothing would be a crime.
This was not the message we
intended to teach.
I spent the eighties completing my undergraduate program with summers spent in San Francisco earning college money as a nanny. (I loved the kids but found the parents ridiculously silly with their privilege and their constant search for purpose. Remember the book and movie The Nanny Diaries? It’s all true!! And… terribly sad.) Anyway, during this time I was unknowingly being indoctrinated into the activist lifestyle required of all San Franciscans. Here, running races were coordinated each weekend, as well as marches. This type of activism has not changed since my graduate school days and eventual departure from the city. I still love to visit SF. During my trips to the city I still partake in protests and marches. I suddenly become twenty again and the rush and excitement I feel returns instantaneously. San Franciscans are not afraid to take action behind their words.
While in graduate school, I volunteered at Coming Home Hospice to work with AIDS patients, I participated annually in the Pride Parade with my dog who was an Animal Assisted Therapist, I marched for women’s and immigrant’s rights and lived in almost every one of the 10 districts established in the 49 square miles of the city. There was a time, I believe, that I moved every 6 months. At the moment I cannot recall why, but I’m sure there was a good reason at the time. Oy!
It was during this time that I became familiar with the NAMES Project Memorial Quilt started by AIDS activist Cleve Jones, who I would later meet during a speaking engagement of his at the public school I was teaching in. It was here that my worlds overlapped a bit, I kinda felt like I was in a time-space continuum.
Each panel of the quilt is 3 feet by 6 feet, approximately the size of the average grave, this connects the ideas of AIDS and death more closely. The goal of the quilt is to bring awareness to how massive the AIDS pandemic really is and to bring support and healing to those affected by it. The AIDS pandemic was Fauci’s first pandemic and he says it’s what shaped him to be a good doctor. Another goal of the NAMES project is to raise funds for community-based AIDS service organizations, specifically prevention and education.
There was an annual march that I participated in, a candlelight march in remembrance of the 1978 assassinations of SF’s Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. I was inspired by my friend, Mark Brand, who used to take his little son and carry him on his shoulders each year. Cleve conceived of the panel idea for the quilt NAMES project through inspiration retrieved by participating in these marches.
Two blocks from my school is a wall mural of Harvey Milk. He is depicted in the painting with his tie and suit somewhat disheveled as he wore his trademark: a broad smile. Next to his portrait are the words:
“All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.”
The street bookending our school is 900 South or what is now renamed as “Harvey Milk Blvd”. I make a point while orienting students to the surroundings of our school to bring them by this mural. We talk about the quoted phrase and the message his portrait portrays. My students do not struggle with its interpretation nor do they appear impatient and want to move on. This man died 43 years ago and his message still remains contagious toward inspiring young ones to take action behind their words even today.
Another person inspired by Harvey Milk was Gilbert Baker. Gilbert is known for designing the rainbow flag which is now a worldwide symbol of LGBTQ pride. It has become widely associated with LGBT rights and causes.
Not to dispute Sheldon from “Big Bang Theory” but Gilbert was the original “Fun with Flags” guy. He designed the flag to represent 8 symbolic colors.
Gilbert states, “Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible, to live in the truth, as I say, to get out of the lie. A flag really fits that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying, ‘This is who I am!’”
A Rainbow is: A meteorological phenomenon, or is that all?
Since the lockdowns in Europe started in March 2020, colorful images of rainbows have appeared in windows across the globe. In Italy, children painted rainbows on sheets, poster boards, and mural paper and hung them outside on their flat balconies and homes for the world to take notice. It worked, of course, children always know this first. Soon the rest of Europe and the U.S. caught on, duplicating its magic. Children can count them as they walk by, enjoying a sense of community at a time when they cannot see their friends or visit playgrounds, and perhaps gleaning hope of a brighter time once the pandemic storm passes. Displayed rainbows provided us with signs of thank you, hope and solidarity.
Wouldn’t it be just like Mother Nature to be at the root for Peace and Harmony?
In researching the meaning of a rainbow, I discovered that much of what Max, Milk, Baker and Jones were communicating was duplicated over and over again in print in various formats and from a variety of resources. Diversity in religion, hue, representation, symbolism, and civil rights were all being represented in an organic phenomenon commonly known as a rainbow.
1. Hope
The rainbow is most commonly known as a symbol of hope. Rainbows often appear after a thunderstorm or when everything is seemingly at its darkest to then spread light and ultimately, hope.
2. Promise
A rainbow can also symbolize promise which stems from the Bible when God flooded the earth to rid it of sin and evil.
3. Good Luck
The emergence of a rainbow is considered by many to be a sign of good luck. This often leads back to Celtic/Irish mythology whereby the appearance of a rainbow would be an indicator of treasure in the form of a pot of gold.
4. New Beginnings
Some people see a rainbow as a sign of a new beginning. This can often be associated with the biblical story of Noah’s ark mentioned earlier, however, it also has a more literal observation as rainbows are often seen after a tragedy (typically severe and destructive weather storms).
5. Death, War and Transition
In Norse mythology, a rainbow was the sign of a fallen soldier and would act as a bridge between the mortal and immortal world for which you would cross upon death in battle.
6. Equality
The unification of colors on a rainbow is often thought to symbolize equality. This is because the rainbow takes all of the visible colors of light and combines them into one unified symbol to demonstrate community and equality.
7. Communication
Rainbows in many cultures and religions are considered to be gateways, paths, or portals that connect two realms or earths. In Greek and Norse mythology, a rainbow connected two worlds and was a path that connected to the Gods.
8. Peace
A rainbow symbolizes peace for a number of reasons. Firstly, it represents the feeling of calmness and tranquility when looking at a rainbow. Rainbows commonly appear after a storm and for a brief moment, give the feeling of peace after the turbulent atmosphere that usually came moments earlier.
A Rainbow is: Universally relatable
As we approach our 20th month of the pandemic, I find it important to remember that there are several pandemics occurring simultaneously. Some pandemics receive more awareness than others. But my experience tells me this: children see it all. Through all of their senses, their awareness is grand. As a person who has dedicated her career to teaching, my bias will always fall to the wisdom of children’s perspectives. This virus pandemic destabilized their communities and how they relate to one another and their parents have struggled with ways of trying to keep them safe. It’s a lot! And yet, they show resilience.
I have a t-shirt that I wear in my yoga classes, it reads, “HumanKind - Be Both”. I also have a sign in my front yard that reads, “Be Kind” with fingerspelling letters. I often hear people who walk along our sidewalk pause and comment to their friend or family member, “Read this one, it’s good.”
This brings me back to Peter Max’s artwork as he related it to the difficulties of the era around the Vietnam war. He invites us into his rainbow world saturated with color, and yet somehow he doesn’t push us to fully disconnect with our humanity. A call to color with thought behind it. Children lead us to this place, too, when they respond to pandemics with rainbows. Children know intrinsically this call to color, this elevation. They know that humans need each other and that we have the power to transmit hope through a symbol as simple, universal, and relatable as a rainbow.
At first, I was surprised at the depth of the symbolism around rainbows. However, I am no longer surprised, just more knowledgeable and perhaps a bit more happy because of it.
Be Kind.
