Rainbow connection and Pride Celebrations

Yesterday I posted about rainbows, and I always wondered how the Rainbow flag become a symbol of LGBTQ pride? June has long been recognized as LGBTQ Pride Month, in honour of the Stonewall riots, which took place in New York City in June 1969. During Pride Month, it is common to see the rainbow flag being proudly displayed as a symbol of the LGBTQ rights movement.

It goes back to 1978, when the artist Gilbert Baker, an openly gay man and a drag queen, designed the first rainbow flag. As he said in an interview, “… A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying, ‘This is who I am!’” Baker saw the rainbow as a natural flag from the sky, so he adopted eight colours for the stripes, each colour with its own meaning (hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit).

It was not until 1994 that the rainbow flag was truly established as the symbol of LGBTQ pride. That year Baker made a mile-long version for the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Now the rainbow flag is an international symbol of LGBTQ pride and can be seen flying proudly, during both the promising times and the difficult ones, all around the world.

Rainbows

 I believe in the idea of the rainbow. And I've spent my entire life trying to get over it. Judy Garland

What does it mean to believe in the idea of the rainbow? Is the idea of the rainbow as some would believe a pathway to find a pot of gold? Or is it a metaphor for trying to find something beyond your reach or capability to achieve? Is it as the ancient Greeks believed a foreteller of storms and wars? Or is it as the Hebrews believe a sign that there will be no more massive floods? The Norse believed the rainbow was a bridge upon which their gods took to go home after spending time on earth. Some believe it is a miracle with no explanation.

The rainbow inspires metaphor and simile both in poetry and in song. In Rainbow Connection, a song known for being sung by Kermit the Frog, the idea of a rainbow is seen as something to wish on, as it is popularly seen as a vision, or symbol of hope.

During COVID-19 The rainbow was adopted as a symbol of hope, especially during periods of lockdown. Households worldwide displayed homemade images of rainbows in their windows, often alongside positive messages.

The rainbow is now a symbol of ethnic and racial diversity. Various Rainbow Coalition movements have used the rainbow as a metaphor for bringing together people from a broad spectrum of races and creeds.

Richard Dawkins; in his 1998 book Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder, wrote:

My title is from Keats, who believed that Newton had destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to the prismatic colours. Keats could hardly have been more wrong, and my aim is to guide all who are tempted by a similar view, towards the opposite conclusion. Science is, or ought to be, the inspiration for great poetry.

The poet Woodsworth has a poem that says

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!..

John Keats in his 1820 poem "Lamia":

Do not all charms fly

At the mere touch of cold philosophy?

There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:

We know her woof, her texture; she is given

In the dull catalogue of common things.

Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,

Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,

Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine –

Unweave a rainbow

Whatever your views of rainbows are, when you see one, just enjoy the beauty of the rainbow

 

Flying

 A few days ago I had to fly to Edmonton, Alberta for a Celebration of life for my aunt. She was the last of my father's generation and it was important for me to say a proper goodbye. Some families take time to have the Celebration of life, and some do it very quickly both are correct. My cousins decided to do it quickly. 

To attend I had to book a flight with very short notice and I went to Google Flights. For those of you who have not used this, it is a very easy way to find the best and cheapest flight from where you are to where you need to go.

I booked with Flair airlines and the experience was not as bad as I had feared. At this time there are numerous stories of delays at the airport. The news is full of reports of people taking three hours to get through security because of the lack of personnel. So, I dreaded the hurry up and wait issue that I thought would be my fate. 

My anticipated fears were not realized. I arrived at the airport 2 hours before my flight, parked my car and was transported to the airport. When I arrived there were only a few people at the counter and I waited about 2 minutes before I talked to the clerk. She checked my vaccination status and I went to security. Security was busy but not that busy. I got into line and was through in about 7 minutes. The delay was because I had a knee replaced and when I went through security the machine beeped. The security guard must have been bored, I told him the beeping was caused by the knee replacement, but he used the wand. He used the wand about four times going over my entire body but he used the wand about six times on my knee. I was not sure if he thought by waving the wand more times the wand would make a different sound. It did not, so eventually I was waived through.

The flight was on a new 737 and it was not packed so there was room to stretch. Because it was a short flight they said they would not be around with snacks or the drink cart. That was fine by me.  I was expecting some inflight entertainment, but there was none unless you had the app for your phone. Since I know little about phones and apps I  did not have access sto entertainment. The flight was on time.

The return flight was delayed by 9 hours due to a staff shortage. I should have checked my phone before I went to bed. My flight left at 6:00 AM and I had to be at the airport by at least 4:00. So I arranged for a shuttle to pick me up at the hotel at 3:25 AM. When I woke at 2:45 AM I got up showered, and dressed and just before I went down to the lobby, I checked my email and noticed a message from the airline letting me know of the delay. It had been sent at 1100 PM. I cancelled my seat on the shuttle and went back to bed.

When I arrived at the airport the next afternoon, there was no problem checking in, but the security line was a bit longer. However, this time I told the security guard about my knee operation and when the machine beeped, they just waved me through.

So, if I am flying in the future  I will download the airline app to have access to inflight entertainment and I will check my email and text messages for information on delays, so I won't have to get up in the very early morning if I don't need to get up.

Poems about dandelions

Yellow Mayne on a bed of bright green

Welcomes the sun into its bower

Deep taproots aerate the soil unseen

When raindrops fall in heavy showers

A weed, a food a medicine, a drink

Vitamin A, C, and K, along with calcium

It makes one think

As I ponder this apparent axiom

Is this a flower or a weed that in my garden grows?

Lets ask the poets what they know

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The First Dandelion by Walt Whitman

Simple and fresh and fair from winter's close emerging,

As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been,

Forth from its sunny nook of shelter'd grass—innocent, golden, calm as the dawn,

The spring's first dandelion shows its trustful face.

Dandelion  by Hilda Conkling

Little soldier with the golden helmet,

O What are you guarding on my lawn?

You with your green gun

And your yellow beard,

Why do you stand so stiff?

There is only the grass to fight!

The Dandelion by Vachel Lindsay

O dandelion, rich and haughty,

King of village flowers!

Each day is coronation time,

You have no humble hours.

I like to see you bring a troop

To beat the blue-grass spears,

To scorn the lawn-mower that would be

Like fate's triumphant shears.

Your yellow heads are cut away,

It seems your reign is o'er.

By noon you raise a sea of stars

More golden than before.

Dandy Dandelion  by Christopher Morley

When Dandy Dandelion wakes

And combs his yellow hair,

The ant his cup of dewdrop takes

And sets his bed to air;

The worm hides in a quilt of dirt

To keep the thrush away,

The beetle dons his pansy shirt—

They know that it is day!

Dandelion by Nellie M. Garabrant

There's a dandy little fellow,

Who dresses all in yellow,

In yellow with an overcoat of green;

With his hair all crisp and curly,

In the springtime bright and early

A-tripping o'er the meadow he is seen.

Through all the bright June weather,

Like a jolly little tramp,

He wanders o'er the hillside, down the road;

Around his yellow feather,

Thy gypsy fireflies camp;

His companions are the wood lark and the toad.

But at last this little fellow

Doffs his dainty coat of yellow,

And very feebly totters o'er the green;

For he very old is growing

And with hair all white and flowing,

A-nodding in the sunlight he is seen.

Oh, poor dandy, once so spandy,

Golden dancer on the lea!

Older growing, white hair flowing,

Poor little baldhead dandy now is he!