Encyclopaedia of Tiny Facts

Also known as a “green flash,” this elusive, atmospheric phenomenon occurs when refractive light causes the top of the rising or setting sun to appear emerald green; an emerald flash can last from a fraction of a second to several seconds long; emerald flashes occur in cloudless skies, across distant horizons, generally over prairies or the sea; Jules Vern wrote about the phenomenon of the green flash in his 1882 novel, “Le Rayon Vert”; Johannes “Bobby” Pierson, a member of the Morningstar Commune in San Francisco and Sebastopol, splintered from the organization and founded the Children of One, a religious commune which existed outside of Santa Cruz, California, from 1968-1970; The Children of One held, as a core belief, that an emerald flash was the “eye blink of God,” and that if someone with green eyes winked repeatedly while viewing an emerald flash, they would transform into sun rays; the Children of One disbanded after Pierson led a mass draft card burning on May 19, 1970, and fled from authorities, leaving the United States; in 1994, 24 years after his disappearance, photos surfaced of a man resembling Johannes “Bobby” Pierson next to a pool bar at the Margaritaville resort in Cancun, Mexico; Pierson was drinking a “Pink Cadillac Margarita”; this is the last known sighting of Johannes “Bobby” Pierson; in March of last year, after spending an hour at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, my parents and I drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to Nepenthe; while we were on the outdoor patio of the restaurant, eating Ambrosia burgers and drinking iced tea, I thought I spotted, to the south, a surfacing whale; I was wrong; five minutes later, my mother hooted and waved her arms in a northwestern direction; there was, on the horizon of the Pacific Ocean, an emerald flash; it was real; I could not believe what I saw; it only lasted a few seconds; we finished the meal in silence; afterwards, we began the drive north to Monterey, but pulled off the road just north of Bixby Bridge; we watched smashing waves hundreds of feet below; the twilight view at Bixby Bridge was and still is the most heartbreaking thing I have seen; it was more beautiful, to my eyes, than the emerald flash, which I had viewed less than twenty minutes prior; my father took my photo with the ocean behind me; I did not say it out loud, but Bixby Bridge is where I would like my ashes strewn; I never thought about cremation before that moment; my parents are both still alive; I do not know if they wish to be buried or cremated; my father visited Big Sur for the first time in 1964, two weeks after his high school graduation; he was on a cross-country trip in a VW bus with his three best friends; I do not think he has been in touch with any of those friends for decades; I have never read “Big Sur,” by Jack Kerouac; there is no good excuse; it is on my list of books to read; I have also not read “Emerald Flash,” by Charles Knief, which is, by numerous accounts on Amazon’s website, recommended; I am okay not reading “Emerald Flash”; it is best to view an emerald flash in the company of a person or people that you love and that love you; strangers will also appreciate an emerald flash, but it is more difficult to hug them afterwards; even more rare than an emerald flash is the mythical blue flash, which requires an exceptionally clear sky and lasts only a heartbeat; I have never seen a blue flash.