Date: Mon 2/2/2004 4:23 AM
Random Thought: Students and Snowflakes

"I should hardly admire them more if real starsand lodged on my coat," Thoreau wrote. and lodged on my coat," Thoreau wrote of snowflakes. I was reading an article about snowflakes. Snowflakes. No two snowflakes follow the same path of creation. No two snowflakes fall to earth by the same course. No two snowflakes are alike. Over the course of its life a snowflake may go through many different stages of growth, experience a host of different influences, as the wind dances it from cloud to cloud, from drier to moister or warmer or cooler environs, all of them leaving their marks on the final flake. A snowflake is a dance between destiny and contingency. A snowflake is a collision of physical law and chance. Each snowflake is vaunted individuality. Each snowflake is a marvel of uniqueness. Each snowflake has a distinctive beauty.

Sounds like a student, doesn't it. And, we should be no less amazed at and enchanted by him or her.