Awestruck by Jonah Paquette

Author:Jonah Paquette [Paquette, Jonah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2020-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

Fun fact: my inspiration for this book came in large part thanks to a rainbow, or rather two rainbows. I was lounging on a beach on the Caribbean island of Saint John late one afternoon, enjoying the powdery soft white sand beneath my feet, and gazing at the impossibly clear blue waters of Maho Bay. Suddenly, without any warning, rain clouds formed overhead, and I was caught in a heavy downpour. I hustled to gather up my belongings and rushed off to my car, soaking wet. After spending a few minutes trying to wait out the rain, it seemed like luck wasn’t on my side and I was about to drive back to the cottage where I was staying. But right at that moment, I looked up and saw the most beautiful double rainbow form over the mountains that served as the backdrop to the beach. The skies suddenly cleared, leaving a jaw-dropping view of the bay with the rainbows behind it. I watched in silence, filled with awe.

When I got back to the cottage that night, I was still on a high of sorts. I became curious about this experience of awe I had just felt—it was a state so familiar to me from many of life’s peak moments. I knew something about the experience of awe, and I wanted to know more. I pulled out my computer and began to look into it further—at excruciatingly slow speed (the internet ran on “island time” too, I suppose). Slowly my excitement built as I learned more about some incredible researchers and their burgeoning insights into the science of awe. I was fascinated and knew in that moment that this was the book I had to write.

The rainbows I saw that day over Maho Bay filled me with wonder, as rainbows have for so many others throughout human history. Across cultures, people have been drawn to rainbows and have been captivated by their beauty. The ancient Greeks believed that rainbows represented Iris, a goddess of the sea and sky and a messenger to the Olympian gods. Other cultures conceived of rainbows as a divine bow of sorts, meant for shooting arrows. And famously, there’s the Irish legend of leprechauns burying their pots of gold at the end of a rainbow.

The science behind rainbows is well understood—they’re formed when light shining through water is bent and reflected, which creates the spectrum of colors we see in them. Remarkably, any time we see a rainbow, we’re the only person in the world seeing it in precisely that form—because it’s all dependent on exactly how light is being reflected back toward us, and each angle of view will subtly change the rainbow’s appearance. But beyond scientific explanation, words often fail when we find ourselves in front of a beautiful and dramatic rainbow. So the next time you happen to see a rainbow, take a moment to linger a bit longer. Think of how many other people might be looking up at that same rainbow but seeing it slightly differently.

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