This story may seem a little odd, but it’s a true story. Well, actually it’s an event that reads like a story. I chased down a rainbow last night for Joe Perez. Let me start out with some background on the how and the why I became involved in chasing a rainbow for Perez.
Perez is a write/blogger based out Seattle, WA. Don’t you just love using phrases such as “based out of” instead of simply saying, “lives in”. I do. It makes my inner journalist smile. I have not yet met Joe but I have shared a couple of e-mail exchanges, one phone conversation, co-authored a short lived blog with him, and read his book. I feel confident in saying if I lived in Seattle, or better yet, if I were based out of Seattle, Perez and I would be friends. With that being said, from this point forward I will be referring to Perez, as Joey. Why? Because I like adding a “y” to the end of all my friends’ first names whenever possible. You cannot say names like Joey, Jenny, Mickey, and Glenney without smiling.
Back to why I was chasing a rainbow last night for my friend Joey. On Joey’s blog he uses an old rainbow photo of mine whenever he writes about gay rights and gay related issues. I love the idea (and am thankful) that he has chosen one of my photos to symbolize a reoccurring theme in his work. Here is the problem; I do not like the photograph that I took. It’s a diffused, bland, grayish shot taken quickly before dusk set in. I did not properly set up the shot; I did not use a tri-pod and did not even have the camera set to the correct adjustment. It is a snapshot, not a photograph.
That’s the back story, this is the how the event unfolded.
Let me paint you a picture of the rainbow I was chasing for Joey. This multicolored arc in the sky combined all seven colors of rainbows from bright red at the top to the beautiful violet beam closest to earth. All shafts of light with the bright, vivid colors of a crayon box. From left to right this rainbow gently kissed the horizon. Directly above this rainbow sat a second rainbow softly muted with hues of fading light. That was a majestic moment of the splendor and glory of our landscape. Come on, when do you get the chance to see a rainbow sitting atop of a second rainbow. Wow.
As for me, I got to enjoy all these magnificent images sent from heaven above while driving along a six lane interstate highway doing 75mph at the end of rush hour. It was right at the point when driving goes from sitting in traffic (the-non-rush-hr) to “get out of my bleeping way”, when the interstate becomes a NASCAR track.
I moved into survival mode, staying alive, taking pleasure in all the splendor of the rainbow and did not kill anybody, especially myself. Here I am, 75 mph, staring out my driver’s side window, listening to R.E.M. tremendously too loud on the stereo and thinking about Joey and how I would like to update that photo. Did I mention, no camera on board, damn, damn, damn…?
I call my wife, who is in the middle of editing a large photo project herself and I ask her to run outside and snap off a couple of shots. 75mph, staring out my driver’s side window, listening to R.E.M. tremendously too loud and now I am on my cell phone, what could go wrong? My wife gets back on the phone, “no rainbow in the sky, sorry” damn, damn, damn…
What next? Have to pick up my daughter at the Grandparents damn, damn, damn… I have no camera, my wife does not have a shot and I am running out of time and light. I feel like I am chasing a rainbow in a ghost town. Nobody is ever going to believe the perfection of this rainbow.
That’s the end of my story. I never got the shot for Joey and I will have to live with the photo that he is using. I never caught the rainbow, only chased it. Anyway what would I do with a pot of gold?
Hey did I tell you about the leprechaun?
