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DAVID BENTLEY'S WEEKLY COLUMN |
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MORNING FROST
Despite the proliferation of bulbs popping their heads out of the ground, spring has not yet sprung. To prove this, Mother Nature is still greeting us each morning with some rather heavy frost. Looking from my doorway just after sunrise, there is a sea of sparkling white. At first it looks like a solid coating. However closer inspection provides some interesting revelations. As I gaze across the neighborhood from my porch, the sparkles I see are not the same as the glare off a smooth, shiny surface. Curious about this recognition, I look closer and see that the sparkles come from individual ice crystals. They are stacked one upon the other, forming a bumpy surface. Their uneven edges reflect the sun, just like the facets of a fine diamond. Soon the sun moves higher in the sky, and I notice something else. As the crystals melt, they form individual drops. The railing on my porch is soon covered with thousands of droplets of water, looking akin to a skin rash. Gradually, as more and more crystals morph into droplets, they begin to bump into one another. Before long, the individual drops of water merge into little pools. Since it is quite cold outside, I quit watching the activity taking place on my porch rail. I assume that the little pools will become larger, covering the rail with water before warming up enough to evaporate into thin air. We humans are like those molecules of water. We start out as masses of children on the school yard and teenagers trying to be like everyone else even though we are different. As we begin to individuate, we become like those droplets. Gradually we let down our boundaries and become part of a larger community like the pools of water. Eventually, we escape into thin air. Or do we? Perhaps tomorrow morning I'll watch the process a bit longer.
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SAN JUAN ISLANDER © 2008 |
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