Rainbows. A physical phenomenon. So physical that you don’t see them only after rain and thunderstorms, but also observe them within you in our day to day lives. The curve of the iris with its seven colours associates itself to humanity’s urge of going “Beyond the limits” within its diversity, fantasy, and power of emotions.
The rainbow provides us with a labyrinth symbol in our lives and is connected to each of us with a different method. We at TEDxAUTH gave our own interpretation into this meteorological phenomenon, which of course isn’t related to the realistic/scientific definition, but takes on a more social and idealistic form.
”Someone could say that our society is akin to a rainbow. It’s made up of people looking similar to colours, hues, shades, so different to each other, but wholly impressive. People of different ages, beliefs, ideologies, genders, who all think differently, who may not get along with each other, just like certain colours that when combined, look to us as though they do not fit together, but yet coexist within the limits. Limits which do not alter, but rather, are engraved upon a huge blue canvas to show their differences with a smooth transition from one to another. If this didn’t happen, maybe our image of the sky would be made of a single, comprehensive colour, nevertheless an amalgamation, but, in the end no one colour would stand out. These imaginary lines seem in the end to correspond to the respect, acceptance and smooth coexistence of the members of society, in order to finally achieve a beautiful, multi-coloured result, a hopeful and progressive society that embraces every person, every different entity, and lets itself illuminate amongst others in order to highlight its uniqueness, but at the same time contributes to highlighting its entirety”.
”I have always liked chasing the rainbow. I imagined it as a magic bridge that would potentially transport me to a more beautiful and colourful world. That being said, I grew up wondering, whether there was any value to chasing something so far-fetched and elusive, something that would drive you towards a utopia? And what if in actuality both ends of the rainbow ended in the same place? Maybe in the end it was a colourful slide that began and ended in the same playground and not a bridge that joined two worlds? It dawned on me eventually, that people often have the tendency to dream of new places and circumstances, unalike to those in which we already live and have respectively. We don’t take pleasure in what we have achieved or what has been generously given to us, instead we are in a constant, never-ending hunt for a magical happiness. We always look towards the forest but lose the tree. We wait impatiently to reach a magical perfection, without, however, thinking that maybe it isn’t tangible. Perhaps what we need to realise is how the reality, within which we currently find ourselves, hides inside a rainbow, a colourful slide that offers us the joy and adrenaline of the moment. Indeed, perfection appears before us, just like a rainbow; it’s time we started recognising and enjoying it as it is.”
”When we were little we were always on the lookout for the magic within tales with fairies, and elves who lived at the end of the rainbow. That end always hid something, all the magic seemed to accumulate there, and we waited after every rain, for it to shine. We sat for countless hours in front of the window, waiting for how and when the storm would end, “Look mum, a rainbow!” full of joy, enthusiasm, hope, shouting again and again. Each of its colours evoked in us an emotion. Red, associated with romanticism and enthusiasm, filled us with strength and ambition. Orange, in turn an enthusiastic and joyful colour, alike to yellow, aroused our imagination. Green, referring to a relaxing and calm attitude, while blue evoked compassion, we considered it to be the colour of truth, it was very familiar, we associated it almost always with the sea and the sky, full of love! Indigo had something mysterious in its appearance, and violet symbolised harmony. Our emotions are perhaps a rainbow. They cover all the spectrum of colours that compose the visible light in the sky and in the process its polymorphism connects to its variegation*, bringing about something magical… Because of this, the rainbow could be a connotation of the theory of the whole perspective through which we can understand humanity from their lowest to their highest point.”
Having said that, as we each interpret the rainbow, we truly wonder, when was the last time you saw a rainbow? How many of us, being adults, often have the opportunity to turn our gaze towards the sky? And what if as we grow up, the memory of its colours fade into a forgotten state, and by chance our feelings and dreams also become discoloured? Do they float between white and black and subside to the neutral grey? Or, maybe there are moments in our life where “our own storm” passes through, and we wait patiently for the time when the rainbow will appear again, bringing about those days of light, more colourful than ever before!
*Variegation: the quality of being variegated (= having a pattern of different colours)
