Inspired by Snowflake Bentley

snowflake image by Wilson Bentley

The children’s book Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin I find inspiring. Although it’s a little too abstract for my daughter to enjoy right now, it says something about what I think is the best kind of life to pursue: the one the involves chasing details.. for their own sake. According to the book, Bentley loved snow from his youth in Vermont. He loved everything in nature, but most of all snowflakes:

He could net butterflies
and show them to his older brother, Charlie.
He could pick apple blossoms
and take them to his mother.
But he could not share snowflakes
because he could not save them.

I am sure the psychology behind his engagement with snowflakes is a little more complicated than this makes it out.. but it’s a beautiful thought: snow, which seems so common, is actually mysterious because it can’t be preserved. According to the book, this preoccupation with the transient nature of snow led to a lifetime effort to preserve snowflakes. He looked at the snowflakes through a microscope and then began to draw them by hand. This finally gave way to a camera and painstaking efforts to get a photo of a perfect snowflake. This was not easy as it was hard to avoid breaking the snowflake of letting it melt in the process of taking the picture. “Some winters he was able to make only a few dozen good pictures.” As his collection grew he gave evening slide shows to friends and neighbors.. and after a while the scientific community also recognized the value of his work.. which demonstrates visually that no two snowflakes are alike.

At the age of 60 he published his book (still available from Dover). The sidebar to the childrens book notes: “By 1926 he had spent $15,000 on his work and received $4,000 from the sale of photographs and slides.” Long live such dedication! That monetary imbalance is ultimately the sign of work that is done not for a reward but for the sake of the work itself. Looking at the cover to this children’s book, I wonder whether it contains a deeper message about life and happiness.

What I see there is that happiness in life depends upon getting our eyes off of ourselves and onto something outside of us. That kind of rapt attention is the place where life has the deepest fulfillment. The important thing is to find some detail upon which the mind can rest. And our duty to the rest of humanity is to preserve something of that view for others, for their curiosity and to demonstrate the object of life. One thing I look forward to giving to my daughter is the sense of joy in examining the world.. not the whole thing, but just some small fascinating details.