The Offline Mind

As kids we think a lot about how caterpillars change into butterflies. It’s in our picture books.

When we spot them crossing a sidewalk or climbing up an oak tree we squeal, often airlifting them with great care into makeshift shacks (jam jars, etc). We poke charitable air holes in the Saran Wrap sky, and we watch. We watch as they cocoon and eventually fly away, metamorphosis complete.

We tie those two beings together so NATURALLY in childhood. We look at him and we KNOW that caterpillar WILL become the butterfly.

His butterfly world is simply asleep inside of him. 

As adults, our intuitive view of the miraculous caterpillar detaches itself from our idea of the butterfly.

There is a caterpillar.

There is a butterfly.

The two seem unrelated.

The butterfly is beautiful. The caterpillar is homely. We stop picking up the caterpillars. We forget what he is destined to become.

This is all merely an observation of my own interactions with such creatures over a lifetime and to say that, perhaps, just perhaps:

YOUR butterfly world is simply asleep inside of you.