“Look,” she said in the morning. She was enveloped by fog, and she was noticing something for the first time. “What is that I can see between me and the house?”
“It’s the fog. You are looking at many little droplets. You are in the middle of a cloud on the ground.”
“A cloud!” She exclaimed.
“Yes, clouds are collections of many water droplets. Fog is a cloud on the ground. You can’t stand on a cloud as the Disney animations show. Peter Pan would fall through the many droplets just as you can walk through all these cool droplets.”
“You mean like a cloud in the sky?”
“Yes.”
“So, this is what the inside of a cloud looks like.”
“Yes.”
“Why do they look so white and solid in the sky?”
“Well, they are far away from you, and they reflect light. If you fly above the clouds in the daytime, they all look white because they reflect sunlight. When the bottom of the cloud looks gray, or blue, or purple, you are looking at a cloud thick enough to block sunlight. And because there are so many droplets, clouds far away have a kind of unity that you can recognize. In fact, you can even imagine animals and faces in the clouds, even though those animals and faces aren’t part of the clouds. You can find smiling faces, or mean faces, or scary faces in distant clouds.”
“So, when I see something that’s far away, it might look different if it were close or I was even inside?”
“You got it. Do you think that works with anything else, like individual people or groups?”
“It’s the fog. You are looking at many little droplets. You are in the middle of a cloud on the ground.”
“A cloud!” She exclaimed.
“Yes, clouds are collections of many water droplets. Fog is a cloud on the ground. You can’t stand on a cloud as the Disney animations show. Peter Pan would fall through the many droplets just as you can walk through all these cool droplets.”
“You mean like a cloud in the sky?”
“Yes.”
“So, this is what the inside of a cloud looks like.”
“Yes.”
“Why do they look so white and solid in the sky?”
“Well, they are far away from you, and they reflect light. If you fly above the clouds in the daytime, they all look white because they reflect sunlight. When the bottom of the cloud looks gray, or blue, or purple, you are looking at a cloud thick enough to block sunlight. And because there are so many droplets, clouds far away have a kind of unity that you can recognize. In fact, you can even imagine animals and faces in the clouds, even though those animals and faces aren’t part of the clouds. You can find smiling faces, or mean faces, or scary faces in distant clouds.”
“So, when I see something that’s far away, it might look different if it were close or I was even inside?”
“You got it. Do you think that works with anything else, like individual people or groups?”
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