Why are there so many songs about rainbows?

I've never before lived in a building more than two stories tall.

Now I'm living in a ninth-floor apartment.

I love the views, from the sunrise most mornings to the sun painting its light across the treetops on clear evenings.

And, like this evening, I love the rainbows that sometimes arch across the firmament outside my window.

I took the picture above at about 7:30 p.m. I was reading a book (Jan Burke's "Kidnapped") and hadn't even noticed that it was raining. But when I finished my cup of coffee and headed for the kitchen, I looked out of my dining room window. There it was: an exquisite rainbow in the eastern sky.

Practical people accept the scientific explanation for rainbows: they're caused by the reflection of light in water droplets in the atmosphere acting as prisms. The more whimsical amongst us think that leprechauns hide their treasure at the end of rainbows. The Judeo-Christian belief is that after the Great Flood, a rainbow appeared as a symbol of God's promise that he would never send another.

Perhaps all of the explanations are true.

Whatever the reasons for their existence, rainbows are ... well ... just enchanting.

I took the picture above with a 8.0 megapixel Canon PowerShot A630 camera.

I took the headline for this post from a song sung by Kermit the Frog.