Wednesday 14 December 2016

No two children are alike


Sincere apologies to anyone who caught my brief and bleak post about the children who will not be celebrating Christmas which I took down last night. As people keep saying, there is not much we can do about it and wallowing in angst doesn't really help anyone.

When I was a kid, I lost all primal fear on Christmas night. I would wander out into the dark wood by our house, safe in the knowledge that no harm could possibly come to me on this night of all nights. The world was wrapped in a warm and benign blanket, or two feet of cotton-wool snow on a good year.

Starlight is reflected from the snow in all directions on a moonless night, and whichever way you turn, your shadow is always right there in front of you. The intricate diffraction of each crystal flake makes sure of that.

Someone told me when I was young, that - out of all the countless trillions of individual snowflakes, no two are alike. I went outside into the snow and allowed a couple of falling flakes to settle side by side on my gloved hand, then examined them through a glass before they quickly melted. They were absolutely identical.

Nobody believed me when I went back inside and told them, but adults are so used to telling lies about Christmas to children, that they must have thought I was making it up.

20 comments:

  1. I suppose the gist of this post is how lucky I feel to have been allowed an ordinary childhood with ups, downs and moments of magic.

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    1. What - you found two identical snowflakes too? I don't believe you...

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    2. No .... ditto to the moments of magic in childhood. I think that there must have been a subtle difference in your snowflakes !! XXXX

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  3. What's the betting that one was a teeny bit small than the other. I put sixpence on that being so!

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    1. Nope. I distinctly remember the being equal in every respect... 56 years ago...

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  4. Of course they were alike. I put sixpence on anyone proving different. Enjoy the season.

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    1. I'll raise that to a shilling. You too, Joanne.

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  5. Tom, I also count myself lucky to have been a child growing up in the place and time that I did. It was a bit later on that life's complications revealed themselves.

    We might see some snowflakes around here by the weekend.

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    1. I would like to see some around here, just so long as the roads are clear on Boxing day, when we go to the Somerset Levels. I don't mind being snowed in for a week once there, though.

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    2. The car has just passed an MOT test without any work needed at all. If it doesn't start when I'm in the Levels, that's fine by me.

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  6. Snow that arrives on Christmas morning and disappears after 24hrs would be just fine by me. My childhood had ups and downs too but Christmas was never particularly good and my whole life my Ma has told me how much she hates Christmas. I think that is why I love it so much ... and I still believe. Have a really enjoyable Holiday Season Tom.

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  7. Well that has shattered one of my dreams Tom as I have always believed that no two snowflakes were exactly alike.
    As to brooding on the world situation - I see those little children trying to leave Aleppo (and I see on the news just now that the cease fire is already broken)and I think of the hatred on all sides, hatred so strong that it overrides any feeling of compassion for anything human regardless of age and I have to cut my thinking - it is all to much to bear Christmas or no Christmas.

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    1. Yes, I am now plunged into the blackest of moods again with the news that all those coach-loads of wounded and desperate people are being bombed, shot and shelled again.

      I would much rather think that I was wrong about the snowflakes, but I suppose that goes without saying - after all, what is a snowflake in the scheme of things? Is a life less valuluable because it only lasts years, weeks, days or minutes?

      Assad and Putin are utter bastards, as are ISIS and the rest of the factions.

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  8. Tom, you are right. And I am whispering it. I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but the old snowflake saw isn't true.

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