THE BUTTERFLIES FAD

[Ron Gatrelle]

Rudy Benavides wrote:

> Joel wrote:
> >I seemed to grow cold as I listened
> >To the words these butterflies spoke;
> >With fear overcome, I was speechless and dumb
> >And then with a start - I awoke"
>
> Hey Joel,
> Avoid these nightmares...turn off the computer an hour before bedtime,
and
> no late night pralines or pizzas.
> Regards,
> Rudy :)

AMAZING! I have had that same dream myself. My first reaction was as
Joel's. I also tried Rudy's cure and quit pizza all together.  But the
dream kept returning.  Finally, I was caught and pinned. After that,
everything changed. It is amazing how one's  perspective changes on the
other side. On the pin I had now achieved immortality and not only that for
the first time in my "life" I was now admired and loved by everyone -
especially the butterfly lady who had personally and carefully curated me.
Sure I had to "die". But we all die sooner or later. How blessed I was.
Unlike all others of my kind who are just put in the ground to become food
for the worms and rot - forgotten forever, I had become one of the chosen
few. Forever uniquely appreciated. Well, I'm being selfish just talking
about the personal bliss I found on the other side.

On the practical side I was serving a great purpose. Occasionally, someone
would come along a remove some skin or hair or toenail from my body for
scientific research - OH, it's OK it didn't hurt, I was dead, remember. I
know it is hard for others to remember that because I was so well curated
that I still looked alive. They also removed my matter from places where it
would usually not be noticed. I had always just (selfishly) looked at
myself as just one. But on the other side I became aware of just how much I
was but a tiny (but important) part of the whole of my kind. There was an
enormous amount of information the butterfly people did not know about my
kind. Through being curated, I was now helping my own kind that were still
"back there" in that troubled, sick, hard world we called life.

Oh, one more thing. When I had those dreams I only saw me and my own kind.
On the other side I found that there are hundreds of thousands of kinds.
The butterfly people had collected us from all over the Universe. Some
looked just like we humans but the collectors have found that they are
actually a very different kind. This caused the curators and some others
they worked with called the... TNC, I think, to realize just how unique
some of these kinds and subkinds were and that they needed to have their
worlds protected from destruction. (The butterfly people love to eat
flowers and they would sometimes plow under entire planets to plant them
with flower food.)

At one time the butterfly people were ignorant and just thought we were all
the same as we all looked alike to them when they first began to notice us.
I was so ignorant myself. I had no idea, not a clue. But that is how
ignorance works - it makes one afraid, and I was - from the outside looking
in. But now I wish everyone could know what I know about being collected
and pinned.

Sadly now, I haven't had those dreams for a long long time. I miss them.
The last time I had the dream, just before I was sent back to awake land,
the dear lady who had curated me said that some of the butterfly people
were trying to stop what they were doing. I guess they succeeded.

RG - for lepidopterists everywhere.


 
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