The Eyes Prevail

By Tom Poland

 

The sky, weather, and beautiful settings … May your eyes carry the day. All narratives and images from Photo of the Week.

 

Look Skyward Angel

The sky. It’s the biggest thing we see, yet we pay it no mind until it demands attention. Meteors, a rare aurora, even rarer comet, an orange-blue bolt of lightning, and eclipses turn our eyes skyward.

And so do rainbows.

Water droplets, sunlight, and an angle paint the sky with optical and meteorological wonderment. A storm breaks and the sun is behind you. You are at the right place for it’s impossible to see a rainbow at any angle other than 42 degrees off sunlight’s axis. Thus it is that no two people see the same rainbow. At last something special is yours and yours alone, and not only that! Your eyes each see a slightly different rainbow.

Discover rainbows in the western sky stormy mornings and eastern sky thunder-struck evenings. If only you could grow wings and fly towards heaven and take a handful of that iridescent magic home. Alas, angel, you cannot for a simple reason: rainbows do not exist.

Beautiful, rare, distant, and unattainable like childhood dreams, this spectacular illusion comes down to four words: reflection, refraction, dispersion, and jubilation. A delicate arc airbrushes the sky. Your worries disappear in a splash of blue … somewhere over the rainbow.

 

Photo by Robert C. Clark

 

The Marvelous Miracle

A birthday party at Johns Island. A cloudburst sends adults scurrying for cover. Not this brave five-year-old. The rain stops him in his tracks whereupon he invites the drops to trickle down his face.

In the midst of the rain the sun breaks out and the devil beats his wife just as life beats the kid out of us. Kids, little puddle stompers, love playing in the rain. Adults don’t.

It takes a raindrop fifteen minutes to grow big enough to fall to earth. Adults grow up and run from raindrops prompting an innocent seven-year-old to ask his mom, “When do big people start to hate the rain?”

Yes, when? Some adults walk in the rain. Others just get wet. Which one are you?

If there’s a roof over your head when it rains, pray that it’s tin. If you get caught in the rain, pray that a child lives in you. Embrace the marvelous miracle. Life sounds, feels, smells, and looks different in the rain. Be a kid now and then. Find rising joy in falling water. Walk in the rain. It’s not against the law, and when all’s said and done you may see another miracle—one shimmering with primary colors.

 

Photo by Robert C. Clark

 

Survivors

The Harrisburg Covered Bridge, Sevierville, Tennessee. The bridge spans the Little Pigeon River’s east fork and something else. Years of attrition and fallen comrades. The Volunteer State has but six covered bridges left.

A tip of the hat to Sevier County. Over the years, the county maintained the bridge as other covered bridges fell to progress. 1975—The Harrisburg Covered Bridge joins the National Register of Historic Places as a rare covered timber truss bridge. 1983—The deteriorated bridge faces closure, but the county gives it new flooring and beam replacements, yet again breathing life into this classic survivor.

And the classic survivor speeding out of this one-way time passage? Difficult to identify. It came down to a 1952 Chevrolet Styleline or a 1950 Plymouth Cranbrook. The hood badge and lights behind the grill say it’s a Plymouth Cranbook.

“What made this scene so unusual was the classic red car. I was photographing the bridge interior when I saw this car coming from the other side. I ran to my position and got three shots of the car passing by … one of those ‘right place at the right time’ moments. What were the odds of all this coming together?” —Robert C. Clark

 

Photo by Robert C. Clark

 

Sunrise At Symmes Chapel

A new day. Sunrise at Symmes Chapel. Locals call it Pretty Place. The open-air chapel tops Standing Stone Mountain in northern Greenville County near the North Carolina line. Not far away, Caesars Head juts o’er the land. Close by is Cleveland, South Carolina. Straight ahead? A peerless view of the Blue Ridge Escarpment and below? A 2,000-foot drop to the floor of Jones Gap valley.

Inscribed just above the cross is a line from Psalms 121:1. “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills ….” Lift up your eyes to the dawning of another day on planet Earth.

Symmes Chapel, part of YMCA Camp Greenville, looks out over Jones Gap State Park. Its unbridled majesty draws photographers like hummingbirds to nectar.

The start of a new life. More than 100 couples tie the knot here each year. Fred Symmes donated far more than a chapel to the YMCA. He donated memories and grand vistas, oft described by visitors as “breathtaking,” “an indescribable feeling,” and “a perfect 10.”

US 276 will take you to Symmes Chapel. Call the camp office at 864.836.3291, Ext. 0 before visiting.

“Because we’re going to the chapel, and we’re gonna get …”

—The Dixie Cups, April 1964

 

Photo by Robert C. Clark

 

 

Visit Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything. [email protected]

 

Tom Poland is the author of eleven books and more than 1,000 magazine features. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press has released his and Robert Clark’s book, Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II. The History Press of Charleston just released his book, Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture.

 

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