“It’s quit rainin’ and the sun’s out again, but look at the sky. There’s a rainbow. Sure is pretty,” I said to Tump, my favorite aunt, “How can there be a rainbow when it’s not rainin’?”

“”Oh, it’s still rainin’ somewhere over yonder. It takes both sunshine and rain to make a rainbow,” Tump said. “By the way, they say there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”.

“Like a buried treasure?”

“Somethin’ like that.”

“We learned in Sunday School that a rainbow is a sign from God to Noah that the world would never be destroyed again by a flood. Maybe Noah found the pot of gold.”

“No, I don’t think so. I recon he would have been too busy unloading all those animals off the ark.”

“Why don’t we go over there and find it? The end of the rainbow is just over there on that ridge.”

“It’s a long walk over to the ridge. Then we’d have to climb the hill. I think the rainbow would be gone before we got there. Then we’d have to walk back.”

“OK,” I said, “Maybe the end of the next one will be closer, like in the front yard.” What did I know? I still believed in Santa Claus, as do too many grown-up people today, only Santa’s new name is government.

I saw lots of rainbows as I grew older. Some were bold and brilliant. Some were faint and barely visible and ending high in the sky. Those I liked best were those displaying ribbons of all of their possible colors and spanning the sky as an arched bridge over a gentle stream of water. Such a rainbow seemed to be anchored to the ground at both ends. But wait a minute! “They” say “a pot of gold”, but at which end? Did “they” really mean both ends? That would require two pots. Oh well, it’s too far to go to find either end.

Of all the rainbows I ever saw, not one has shown its end nearby, particularly near my yard. I finally realized that both ends of every rainbow that I saw were the same distance from me. I was in the middle of it. A man standing at the point that I saw as the end looked up and saw that he also saw the rainbow from a point midway between the ends. So where was the end? It could be only in the eye of the observer; thus there was no real end and no pot of gold.

AFTERWORD: I thought of writing about “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.” On the outside chance that one of our millions might testify to getting help, even though being from another planet, I chose the gold and rainbow myth.