Yesterday, March 8, brought some turbulent weather to my area. Fortunately it wasn't like the weather in the Midwest, which dumped feet of snow on Kentucky and Ohio. But there were roiling masses of grey cloud, and above them sunlit piles of white cloud, rolling overhead at high speed. Among the clouds every so often was a patch of clean blue sky. And when the big grey cloud was overhead, down came the rain.

Since the sky was only partly cloudy, though, the sun shone through a break in the clouds even as it was raining. It was sunny and rainy at the same time! The rain, in the sunlight, shone like falling silver. I looked for a rainbow, but didn't see one. The sunrays, though, illuminated the rain high above in a suitably Divine fashion, lacking only an angel or two for Biblical verisimilitude.

I have not seen this phenomenon of "sun rain" very often. The only other memorable time I have seen it was outside of Vienna, Austria, at the Grinzinger Friedhof. This is a cemetery where many famous people are buried. The most famous of its graves is that of composer Gustav Mahler, author of hugely tragic symphonies and song cycles. In spring 1976, when I was traveling in Central Europe, I made a special pilgrimage to this grave to pay my respects to Mahler, one of my favorite composers. The monument and gravesite can be seen here.

When I was there, the flowers were blue lobelia planted in the earth, rather than the colorful ones you see in the tourist's picture. And as I stood there, the weather was just as I experienced it here yesterday. The sun shone, but rain fell at the same time. There was happy sunlight and sad rain together at Mahler's grave. It was much like Mahler's music, which often puts cheerful major and grim minor chords together at the same time. Conductor Bruno Walter, a friend of the composer, reported a similar mix of torrent and sunshine during Mahler's funeral.

Posted at 3:48 am | link