Rainbows in 2020
“Somewhere over the rainbow”, “dreams come true” and “troubles melt like lemon drops”, sang Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz, remember?
Now that we are hopefully about to come out of this pandemic, let’s start to think of the good things that will have emerged.
First and foremost what embodies the human spirit most? Hope comes to mind quickly.
The rainbows started appearing in Italy with the children drawing them in windows with the words “tutto andra’ bene” which translates to “Everything will turn out OK”. Amazing, isn’t it? While it seemed like the world was crashing in around them with hundreds of people dying everyday they found solace in saying “Everything will turn out OK”.
Innovative spirit has originated in Italy time and time again. Who knew the signs with rainbows would start showing up in people’s windows in the United States, Canada, and the UK. The brits said that the rainbows represent support for all of the hardworking health care professionals. Wow. We as a people really do care for others.
This my friends is hope.
But why rainbows?
While rainbows are a relatively common meteorological phenomenon, seen by every human since the dawn of time, different cultures have sought diverse meaning in a translucent arc in the sky. For the Aboriginal people of Australia, the rainbow is a very brightly colored snake that appears to stop rain that has been made by their enemies.
In Japanese myth, the rainbow is a Floating Bridge of Heaven on which the male and female creators of the world descended to create land from the ocean of chaos.
More recently, the variously colored rainbow has been used to reflect diversity in sexuality, becoming the international symbol of the gay movement.
This makes is all the more interesting that it has become the symbol for “hope” during this the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 by our children.
What about the environment, something we aren’t hearing about much but the earth is saying thank you with clear skies, stars in the middle of cities, fresh air, dolphins in the canals of Venice. Really?? Can the environment start to recover in just one short month? Wow, that in my book is another sign of hope. What will we all learn from all this?
I paid $1.47 a gallon for gas the other day. Now that may not be great for Exxon or can it be? Maybe there is too much supply. How do we balance all this? There has got to be a way, and we just got a wake up call that we need to find it.
So as the coronavirus pandemic continues and hopefully winds down, the children from all across the globe are putting smiles on everyone’s faces. Thank you innocence, thank you hope. Thank you for believing we will all come out of this being more caring and a little more introspective. Were our values out of whack? Whether they were or not, this has made us stop and think about it, hasn’t it?
Re-entry to our normal way of life will be slow, and getting back to good bank balances may take some time but think of it this way, it may be giving us more time on the backend.
Be positive and think like a child that sees blue skies and is perpetually hopeful. Just like when we see a rainbow at the end of a violent storm.
