This is the twenty third article in a series I am writing for the JEANS section of 'The Nation'. The series is for children. Adults consider yourselves warned...you might re-discover a child within you! Scroll down for other articles in this series.
Watch the wind play with the cloud. Watch it turn those fluffy white things into
forms and patterns. Watch the wind use
the sky as a canvas and clouds as though they were pieces of cotton wool that
can decorate and delight. Watch these
things while stretched out on a mat in the garden when the sun is either too
your or too old to hurt your eyes. If
it’s all dull and boring, take your eyes off the sky and look around you. At ground level.
If there is space for you to stretch out on a mat in
your garden or anywhere else, the chances are there’s a lot happening around
you. Some of the ‘happening’ will be too
slow to observe and would probably test your patience. For example, the grass will be growing but you
might not see it. The leaves may or may
not move with the wind. If it’s a garden
there might be some flowers. Pretty
ones, perhaps. And if you look carefully
you’ll probably see some insect movement.
Perhaps even a butterfly or two.
Perhaps there’s nothing much to see. No flowers. No butterflies. Just grass or dust. That’s okay.
You can still imagine, right? You
can imagine all kinds of things. You can
go wherever you want and be with whoever you want to be. But right now, think of butterflies.
There are many ways to think about butterflies. You can think of them in terms of size, shape
and color. There are butterflies that
are common and there are rare ones too. There are entire books devoted to
butterflies which talk about various species, habitats and habits, defense
mechanisms etc.
You could think of jewelry where the designs have
butterfly motifs or are inspired by butterflies. You might think of ways in which different
cultures see butterflies, how Japanese think they personify a person’s soul,
especially the soul of a loved one who has died, or how they see large numbers
of butterflies as bad omens. The
Chinese, you might be interested in learning, see two butterflies flying
together as a symbol of love. You might
have also heard of the idiom ‘butterflies in the stomach’ and that it describes
nervousness.
It
might amaze you to know that butterflies have inspired important technological
innovations, such as nanotechnology research to produce paints that don’t use
toxic pigments. Did you know that
discoloration of butterflies is taken as an indicator of poor air quality in
certain cities?
Yes,
there are many ways of thinking about butterflies. J.M Barrie wrote, ‘When the first baby
laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all
went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.’ You could even say ‘that was the beginning of
butterflies’ and that would be a wonderful way of thinking about babies,
laughter, delight and butterflies.
And
then there’s R. H. Heinlein’s butterfly definition: ‘Butterflies are
self-propelled flowers’.
Stop
right there. Read it again. Butterflies are self-propelled flowers. Now look at the flower closest to you. If
there are none, go look for one. If
there aren’t any flowers anywhere close, just close your eyes and think of a
flower. Any flower. Now think, ‘that’s a
butterfly that has not yet taken wing.’ All
of a sudden there are so many butterflies to think of and they all have names
and even fragrances, right? And there
are butterflies hidden in wrapping paper too.
Only, their outlines are yet to get cut.
But if you think about it, they are all capable of flying because they
are all self-propelled.
The
world is made of butterflies. Isn’t it
beautiful?
Other articles in this series
It is cool to slosh around
You can compose your own music
Pebbles are amazing things
You can fly if you want to
The happiest days of our lives
So what do you want to do with the rain?
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