DOUBLE RAINBOWS OVER LA

Photo by TJ Sullivan of the magnificent LA double rainbow over Century City:

"It never rains in LA," but for two glorious days in this month of September; one of our hottest months, it torentially poured. As I looked out the window of a Brentwood party Friday night, thick sheets of water pounded the ground and I wondered how I'd get back to my car without being drenched (Angelenos don't own umbrellas). The next evening, as we barrelled down the 101 toward the legendary Rose Bowl for a football game, I saw this city in a light my native Angeleno eyes have never witnessed: dramatic violet light thrown on the mountains, huge puffy Hawaii style clouds and a super saturated double rainbow over the freeway!!! Every car that passed by was looking out the window pointing to the incredible phenonmena; it's a wonder there wasn't a pile up, but it seemed that the magical sight kept us all under divine protection.

A native Angeleno, I've never thought this city to be very attractive, but this experience changed my mind completely. My friends, Seattle types, weren't as non plussed as I stating, "oh we see this kind of light all the time." Puff, puff.

There are many legends of double rainbows: leprecans find pots of gold and the symbol shows up in shamanic teachings. A San Francisco based ice cream shop took the name (hmmmm, I wonder if they saw their double rainbow over a Grateful Dead show?). My favorite 60's star, Jimi Hendrix sang of the Rainbow Bridge.

"Warriors of the 1990s! RAINBOW NATION WITHOUT BORDERS" recounts the spiritual search of the post-war generation, which has tried to bring about a new balance and harmony to a world in turmoil.

Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition attempts to cross cultural borders.

Christians and New Agers give it deep meaning: according to the Bible, the rainbow is symbolic of God's everlasting covenant that he (It) would never again destroy the earth by a flood.

The New Age Movement uses rainbows to signify their building of the Rainbow Bridge (antahkarana) between man and Lucifer who, they say, is the over-soul.

Of course Judy Garland sang about a world "Over the Rainbow" in the classic film "The Wizard of Oz"

However, according to The National Center for Atmospheric Research:

Sometimes we see two rainbows at once, what causes this? We have followed the path of a ray of sunlight as it enters and is reflected inside the raindrop. But not all of the energy of the ray escapes the raindrop after it is reflected once. A part of the ray is reflected again and travels along inside the drop to emerge from the drop. The rainbow we normally see is called the primary rainbow and is produced by one internal reflection; the secondary rainbow arises from two internal reflections and the rays exit the drop at an angle of 50 degrees° rather than the 42°degrees for the red primary bow. Blue light emerges at an even larger angle of 53 degrees°. his effect produces a secondary rainbow that has its colors reversed compared to the primary.It is possible for light to be reflected more than twice within a raindrop, and one can calculate where the higher order rainbows might be seen; but these are never seen in normal circumstances.

Whatever. It was beautiful and restored my faith in this crazy city.