Pace – by GG – Fine Art Photography

Where Do the Rainbows in the Sky Come From?

“Blessed are the peacemakers:
for they shall be called the children of God.”
—Matthew 5:9

Rainbows are multicolored arcs that appear when sunlight illuminates little drops of airborne water. They can be seen when sunlight from behind an observer illuminates water droplets in front. After a sunbeam enters a water droplet, it hits the back of the droplet and is partly reflected. Due to their different wavelengths, the different colors of the sunbeam exit the water droplet at different angles and a rainbow appears. The colors of a rainbow show the visible color spectrum of sunlight from violet in the inner ring to red in the outer ring. The second arc of a double rainbow shows the colors reversed.

Rainbows are optical illusions and not objects with a distinct location. The sun, the water droplets, and the observer must be in a specific lineup for a rainbow to be seen. Different observers will see different rainbows depending on their location.

New Year’s Greetings

“Be at War with your Vices,
at Peace with your Neighbours,
and let every New-Year find you a better Man.”
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1755

With or without fireworks, I wish you all a Very Happy 2017. May it bring health, happiness and peace to everyone.

Thoughts About the World as It Is… or Could Be (2): Peace

“Imagine all the people, living life in peace…
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,
I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.”
Imagine, John Lennon, 1971, from the album “Imagine”

Naïve I was, dreamer I am. Improving the lives of people where there is need has become just another item on the to-do-lists again. When facing the realities of terror, nations respond with violence, again. The attackers won. Why do we obviously still believe the use of violence would lead to less violence? Why do we think others should follow rules we do not follow ourselves? Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in the right of self-defense. But there is a difference between self-defense and self-justice.

Last summer, a young man killed nine people in a church in Charleston, South Carolina. As different as this shooting was from the recent shootings in Paris, they are all acts of violence and terrorism. What struck me most in the aftermaths of these horrible events was the response of the people. In Paris, Davide Martello set up his piano—adorned with a peace sign—outside of the Bataclan theatre and played John Lennon’s “Imagine”. In Charleston, people showed forgiveness towards the attacker and unity when faced with an attack intended to divide.

Using violence is not a sign of strength, using violence is a sign of weakness. Strong are they who respond with love when facing evil.

Frieden—Hépíng—Mir—Pace—Paix—Pax—Paz—Peace—Salām—Shalom