No Two Snowflakes the Same?

I've heard that no two snowflakes are exactly the same... an amazing thought, considering the number of snowflakes that fall in any given snowstorm, let alone any given winter! This is one of those ideas that can't be proven - and I know skeptics exist...

When I was teaching, one of the articles my students and I enjoyed discussing explained the difference between snow and hail... From my students, I learned that - although snow is unknown in many warm countries - even hot climates experience hail. Hail apparently even falls in Saudi Arabian deserts.

The article we read in class mentioned that snow forms around a tiny speck of dust which absorbs water as it moves up and down at various altitudes in a cloud, absorbing more moisture (and changing shape) until it falls. Hail has similar origins. And since no two snowflakes (or hailstones) experience exactly the same journey - and form under different conditions, even within the same cloud - none turn out to be exactly the same as any other.














I really don't know who is right in this "Are-no-two-snowflakes-the-same?" debate - the skeptics or the believers - but I side with the believers. Not because I have any special scientific knowledge that makes me an expert on snowflakes - even though I do see a lot of them every winter! But because God - in nature - doesn't duplicate anything! Our genetic make-up and our experiences combine to make each of us completely unique. (We would, in fact, be amazed to encounter someone exactly like us anywhere! It would be news around the world if we did!)

Isn't this the same for all animals and plants?... No two dogs, cats, trees are ever exactly the same - even when they come from the same parents (or in the case of the trees grow from seeds from the same parent-tree). Variety is everywhere...

One of the areas I find most fascinating in creative variety is music. You'd think that music styles would stay the same - or at least recycle - over the ages, but as I listen to medieval Gregorian Chants - and contemporary Christian music (to choose a small segment of the vast musical spectrum), I am amazed at how music evolves... No re-runs here!

Creativity creates unique creations... not cookie-cutter copies.

That is my awesome thought for the day!