A promise soft as a butterfly's kiss

Minnesota is certainly not Capistrano. Swallows are not butterflies. The promise is not the reality, but if you look to the right hand side of the page, you'll see a new widget-thingy in the sidebar. It took a little bit of hacking to get the Monarch Butterflies Journey North installed and working. In the process of trying to get Blogger to do what I wanted, I traded a few emails with a former Minnesotan now working for Journey North and living in Vermont. We agreed it'll be awhile before any monarchs are seen in Minnesota. That doesn't keep me from looking forward to their return. There are so many problems in the world about which we can do little but complain. Keeping monarch butterflies around isn't one of those issues. Ordering some swamp milkweed and maybe some butterfly weed is on the To Do list and I decided I'd rather write today about butterflies and flowers and Summer than complain about cold and wind and the amount of snow blowing off my roof. I'm also getting curious about the plantings we made last year and which will make it through the Winter and bloom again come Spring. In fact, I'm looking forward to my own reblooming come Spring.

monarch butterflies on Northern Plains Blazing-star

Photo by J. Harrington

Song for Chaim

By David Shapiro 

If one saves a butterfly, has one saved the world?

Rabbi says: If one saves one butterfly, even with long wings,

one butterfly that has fallen into water, it may be said:

“He has saved the whole world.”

If one saves a motley moth, is it the same?

Rabbi: It is valid. If one saves a dirty monkey from a flame,

for example, it is as the saying is: He or she has saved the whole world.

It is valid for all creatures, and not more so for the creatures who know

how to recite the blessings. It is always valid, even on the Sabbath.

It is said: The creatures of the sky are owned by no one, like the land.

If one saves the Book from being destroyed, is it also saving a world?

Rabbi: God forbid, yes, saving the book from the fire,

saving the book or books from the fire, is known to be comparable.

He who saves a book and he who

writes a holy book, it should be said:

They have saved the whole world like a book.

If one saves a rose, one rose,

from the garden of your dead Teacher,

is it still appropriate to think:

She has saved the world.

The Rabbi was silent and seemed troubled. He replied:

If the house of the great teacher is in ruins,

and the garden is a scandal, and one saves

one rose from his garden it is said even

of one rose: It is like saving the world.

It is also said the rose will grow as large as the world.

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