Still blue

Right now, I am laying on a park bench looking up at the clouds. I have always been intrigued by clouds, but not as much as by the color of the sky. The sky is blue because, as light waves from the sun pass through the atmosphere, they are scattered at various locations. Only the blue wavelengths are scattered at the appropriate time so, although the sun is letting off red and green and yellow light too, we only see blue. As the earth rotates, the angle between the sun and our location on earth varies, causing wavelengths to have to pass through thicker and thinner amounts of atmosphere. The sky is different shades of blue at different times because of this variation and the lengths of lightwaves scattered. So, until the sun sets, the sky is always blue.

But, for the first half hour that I was sitting here, the sky was cloudy and gray. Dark stratus clouds spanned the troposphere, nibus and full of rain. The air had not yet reached its due point, so it hasn't rained yet. I was stuck looking up at a lifeless, bleak, and unvarying color. The earth rotating and the sun is shining, but all I could see was gray. The sky was gray and I was forced to sit here, wishing it was blue again.

But, as pressure systems changed, the clouds blew past, exposing, once again, the blueness above. Right now, it is gentle and light and brighter than I remember. Looking up at the passing clouds, I feel foolish for ever cursing at gray. The sky is not cloudy. The sky is blue. The sky is always blue. Sometimes, there are clouds that make us think the sky is gray but, behind them, somewhere, the sky is still blue.


Incase it wasn't blatantly obvious, this post has almost nothing to do with the sky.