The Weight of Nothing

“Tell me the weight of a snowflake,” a squirrel asked a wild dove.

“Nothing more than nothing,” was the answer.

“In that case I must tell you a marvelous story,” the squirrel said.

“I sat on a branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow, not heavily, not in a raging blizzard, no, just like a dream.  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, squirrel scampered away.  The dove thought about the story for a while and finally said to herself: “Perhaps there is only one person’s voice lacking for peace to come about in the world.”