Snowflakes And the Human Face

Unlike snowflakes, faces are not all unique. There are only so many faces in the world, and after you've lived four or five decades, you've seen them all. Everyone reminds you of someone else.

You'll be watching a movie, and instead of paying attention to the story, you look at the faces of the actors and try to think who they remind you of. Since your memory is disappearing along with the uniqueness of the human face, this can take you through the entire movie. Which is just as well. You didn't want to watch it anyway. It was filled with all those boringly familiar faces.

It makes me wonder. Who said all snowflakes were different? And how do they know? Did those who made the pronouncement sit at their windows studying each one? Did they travel the world in search of that single snowflake that was unique because it looked like one they saw before?

And perhaps they are wrong. Perhaps snowflakes are like human faces, and after you've seen a lifetime of them, they begin to remind you of snowflakes you saw in your youth. Like the one you tried to lick from that pole. Now that was a time and a flake to remember!

I suppose the next step after becoming familiar with all the forms of the human face is to begin forgetting them. You won't be able to remember from one moment to the next who you are, what you've done, and what you've seen, so each face becomes new again.

I can hardly wait.