Is Snow White?

As we close in on the end of another winter season, one without much snow, it is that very powdery precipitant that I wish to use as a catalyst for deeper thought. Today I am going to take you on a journey into your subconscious thoughts and help you understand how your mind is shaped by your environment and controlled to your detriment. I intend to demonstrate that you likely engage in passive acceptance of the language and limitations of thought that surround you. This is something that while a seemingly ineffectual study can have a marked impact on your parenting and child custody case.

It is the toughest cases for which I am usually consulted -- the high conflict divorces. I face ineffectual attorneys or parents who are so engrained into a thought pattern about their behaviours that change for them "is impossible." Yet, for me there is no can't but only an absence of properly directing the will. So it is with this background that I ask you -- Is snow white?

My first guinea pig is always my son. This past Saturday after he had concluded his description of winning four out of four debate rounds that day I posed the question to him. He is an extraordinary person who, raised under my tutelage, has learned to critically examine the world in which he lives. The skills for debate were acquired at an early age. Doubt, it seems, coupled with a desire for exploration and knowledge of the world are the great motivators for seeking answers and, ultimately, Truth. Few people seek Truth though as it can have dire consequences and comes with a great responsibility that few are willing to accept.

Now when I ask you as I did my son -- is snow white -- your impulsive response is probably yes as if there could be any cause for which the answer is not. Then comes reflection on why I should ask such a mundane question with an obvious answer. Snow is white, Disney gave us a character named Snow White and it's always been referred to as white. No doubt I must be onto some absurdity for which I intend to posit some completely irrational idea. However, in this text I refer to snow in it's most natural state like that of the virginal layer covering the tips of the Antarctic peaks. No trickery here and no irrational thoughts.

So after Therin gives me the expected affirmation that snow is indeed white I posed the question about the lakes across the roadways in the desert -- why is it that the lakes covering the desert roadway disappear as we approach. This phenomena -- a mirage -- is an optical illusion caused by the diffraction of light beams bent by the expansion of air close to the roadway surface. Thus it only appears that there are ripples of water settled over the roadway or desert floor ahead. Are you starting to get the picture?

Indulge me for a moment as I present a demonstration of cultural influence on our belief structure. Cinema has brought the world to our neighborhood and contemporaneously directly into our homes with some providing the full theatrical effect. As a child of eight years I first witnessed the awesome spectacle of Steven Spielberg's Star Wars. I was hooked from the first time I saw it. It is actually in my stack of movies that I have selected to view this week. Rest assured that it will be in surround sound with a subtle increase in the amplification as compared to most flicks I watch. It is the sound production in Star Wars that interest me.

I have seen all the documentaries. I have learned about the sound that a high tension support cable attached to a radio tower makes when tapped with a metal bar and how that sound was transferred to the light saber battles in the epic production. As a child I was also titillated by the galactic battles involving the X-wing fighters or Millenium Falcon of the protagonists of the series narrowly escaping the explosion of the Death Star and the awesome sounds that ripped from side to side, front to back of the theater as we viewers were pulled into the scene. But how did this imprinting affect my judgment.

It was upon the deeper explorations of science, the introduction of physics and the search for the relationships between forms of matter that started to dissolve the early imprinting made upon me. Space is, on it's most fundamental level just that, space. Cosmologist posit Dark Matter and the Higgs mechanism but for this demonstration we can be well settled upon space being a void. Objects or rather matter is propelled by the force of the electrical field of other matter coming into contact with that matter. Your hand smacking the water, your breath against the flame of a candle, likewise the vibrations in the air or water that come into contact with your inner ear. Newton long ago established a set of rules which are still applicable today.

You've likely been asked if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound. Try this one -- if there is an explosion but no medium to transmit the sound waves does it make a sound. Thus the Star Wars paradox. The explosions took place in space absent the medium of air, water or any other matter that possesses atoms which can be agitated in a manner that transmits sound. Likewise there is no force from the explosions transmitted. So the answer to the Star Wars question is then no. It is referred to as "theatrical license", the standard which allows for the suspension of reality to give effect to the feeling that the film is intended to evoke.

So now back to the snow. In examining this question it may be necessary to reduce it to its constituent parts. First, what is snow. It's frozen water that has taken on a crystallized form. So then what is water. A liquid whose atomic structure is two parts Hydrogen bound to one part Oxygen. So now on to the heart of the question -- what colour is water. It is translucent.

Is there anything added to this translucent liquid material when it becomes a solid -- frozen -- material. No. It is water that has gone through a phase transition to a solid whether it be in block form of flake form. So now that you have had your mind freed from the prior conditioning about snow and can give a critical examination to it, answer the question -- is snow white.

Finally, what does it appear to be. We all now about appearances -- they can be deceiving.

If you need assistance in a child custody matter, parenting or overcoming the preconceptions that restrain your success then please visit my website and contact my scheduler to make an appointment to meet with me.

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More information about child custody rights and procedures may be found on the Indiana Custodial Rights Advocates website.

©2012 Stuart Showalter, LLC. Permission is granted to all non-commercial entities to reproduce this article in it's entirety with credit given.