The Weight of a Snowflake

“Tell me the weight of a snowflake,” a tiny sparrow asked a wild dove. “Nothing more than nothing,” was the answer. “In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story,” the sparrow said. “I sat on the branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow, not heavily, not in a raging blizzard, no, just like in a dream, without any violence. Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the next snowflake dropped onto the branch (nothing more than nothing, as you say), the branch broke off.” Having said that, the sparrow flew away.

The dove thought about the story for a while and finally said to herself: “Perhaps only one person’s words are lacking for peace and brotherhood to come about in the world.”

Author Marcus Bach once interviewed Josef Meier, the actor who for many years played the…