Just in: rainbows, dolphins & electric moon spiders trump news

Must admit I was hoping for slow news days as Jeanne and I loaded a fuel friendly mid-size rental and started south for a long delayed adventure on Florida’s Gulf Coast near my daughter’s place in Tallahassee. Of course, news washed in like the tide. First the Supremes patched a hole in the Constititution by ruling detainees at Guantanamo have the right to petition U.S. courts. Habaes Corpus lives! Then I learned that Meet the Press’s Tim Russert had died.

But that’s not what this is about. OK, for the record, I’m relieved by the Supremes’ decision, and while Russert could’ve done more to get the truth out about, say, the Bush/Cheney administration’s case for war, secret energy deals and efforts to downplay global warming, to name three crimes and misdemeanors, one could say the same about most of Russert’s peers. He knew to ask tough questions in a disarming way. His death is cause for mourning.

Still, this is about electric moon spiders and giant rainbows that wade ocean waters in order to show you the whole round realness of wonder that only a vacation can provide by reminding you of who you were before you became what you do….

Maybe you’ve had such moments, when something of the wide-eyed child in you surfaces unexpectedly. Last year it took the form of dolphins hydroplaning onto island beaches to devour fish they’d herded near our campsite at Edisto, SC.

This past Thursday night it happened thanks to electric moon spiders, courtesy of a half-moon that provided a midnight light show. Walking down the beach on St. Joe’s Peninsula, Jeanne and I suddenly saw how light riding the surf seemed to climb out of the sea in a sizzling tangle of sparkles, beams and burning flares.

The phrase electric moon spiders is misleading. You could describe other aspects of the show as akin to sparklers on the Fourth of July or as of light sabers and other effects from a George Lucas film, but the phrase that stuck the next night as I pointed out the phenomenon to my daughter Alexis and her friend Brent, was electric moon spiders. None of us had ever seen such sizzling light dancing up at such angles to surf the night tide. They sizzled together, disentangled, then returned. Another couple on the beach were equally amazed. None of us had ever seen such a sight.

Then, just yesterday, as our intimate group of four biked to a folksy sandwich and suds shop, we stopped amazed by another singular phenomenon. It was as if a rainbow waded in off the other side of the bay at St. Joe’s, growing larger as it came in to and stood knee-deep in the bay. If elves are correct in suggesting pots of gold dwell at ends of rainbows, then one particular fishing boat was anchored bow to treasure. The rainbow was visible in its entire arc, with colors so real you could touch them. I looked west, toward the setting sun, and saw how the beams it cast through the cloud cover had created the moment. When I looked back to the rainbow, it disappeared gradually from its horseshoe legs upward, fading as the sun lowered its beams.

More soon.