Crystals
and Chromosomes
“The
snowflakes fall, each in their proper place.”
Zen
Saying
Thankfully,
it isn’t snowing here in western North Carolina. In fact, the high temperatures
this week will be in the 60’s, as high as 67 degrees. This is December 2nd.
Thanks to global warming, there’s not much chance of a white Christmas this
year.
Most
people love snow—I did as a child because it meant a day without school. Now, I
just find it cold and treacherous. But I do agree there’s something magical
about the snowflakes—their unique crystalline form, their variety, their
variation in size and shape. Two snowflakes falling together, side-by-side,
will be entirely different from one another. But both are still snow, still
frozen water, still lacey and perfect. Aren’t we a lot like that?
The
more I delve into human makeup, the more similar I find people to be. Yes, we
come in all sizes and shapes, all colors, and combinations of styles—yet we are
all humans. Our DNA is identical. We all have 52 chromosomes, banded by
inherited markings that determine which traits will be active and which
dormant. Looking at personality types, we all fall into a few categories with
common behaviors and natures. Each may be expressed differently, and yet there
are plenty of shared likenesses that can be measured. There are predictable
patterns in our expression of interests and abilities, personality similarities
and styles of relating to others. Like snowflakes, we are all the same species,
with a variety of expressions, but more likeness than difference.
As a
child, I loved to watch ants at work. They marched out of the mound in nice
straight lines, some scouted for food and informed the others of where to find
it, some tended the nest, fed the larvae, stored the food that others brought
in. Everyone of them, no matter how many there were, had a job to do that they
did not veer away from. The scouts didn’t want to be larvae feeders, and the nest
aerators didn’t want to be scouts. There was no hierarchy of importance. They
just did their jobs. We aren’t like that.
In so
many ways, our big brains have served us and all of humanity well, but in
others, we don’t have an advantage. We’re greedy, competitive, irrational,
emotional, unnecessarily violent, and deceitful. But we’re also generous and
caring and intelligent and given to altruism for no good reason except that our
hearts are full of gratitude, and we want to help. Curious creatures one and
all.
I don’t
know what sort of human you are, but I am certain that you and I are more alike
than we are different. We breathe the same air, take nourishment from the
earth, we stargaze and daydream. I am glad for that and heartened by it. We are
sisters and brothers, as similar as snowflakes falling together in our proper
place.
In the
Spirit,
Jane
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