I've been watching three butterflies from my office window. They are black with white specks, and seemed like they've been together for a while. They displayed a fluttering unison - echoing each other's movements as they hovered over the shoe-flower blossoms. I could see they looked very much alike - same size and all, but for some reason two of the black beauties followed the one in front. Looks like we have a 'leader' in the group! - I observed.
This went on for about ten minutes, and sometimes they seemed so intimately close that I couldn't see the 'leader'. Amused at the attention-grabbing, rapid wing-flapping and the dedication with which both black beauties chased the one in front, my eyes followed the trio around as they moved from one blood-red hibiscus flower to the next. It struck me that the 'leader' was the only one sucking in flower nectar! The way I looked at the whole butterfly scene began to change.
My deductive reasoning skills have only recently received a boost, thanks to the several PhD courses I've been taking in Holland. I find my senses undergoing a systematic re-structuring: the goodness intention is to encourage solving puzzles in a logical way. But the creative streak in me (alive and kicking, still) went on to imagine several relationship-probabilities for these butterflies.
The most likely would be that the one I christened 'leader' might be the 'lady' and the two that followed her around tirelessly, not feasting on the nectar at all, should be 'suitors' - trying to impress her. And she couldn't care less! Ms Beautiful Butterfly went about her business (or so it seems), but could have secretly been leading the two 'boys' on, for all I know :-) The teasing would be her way of finding out who of the two black beauties are worthy of her. And I can't help but imagine what feelings must go through her little head and heart... Would she be excited by the attention?
I wonder if Ms Beautiful feels the same kind of excitement as women do... After all, we do refer this excitement to the flutter of "butterflies in the stomach" - don't we :-)
This went on for about ten minutes, and sometimes they seemed so intimately close that I couldn't see the 'leader'. Amused at the attention-grabbing, rapid wing-flapping and the dedication with which both black beauties chased the one in front, my eyes followed the trio around as they moved from one blood-red hibiscus flower to the next. It struck me that the 'leader' was the only one sucking in flower nectar! The way I looked at the whole butterfly scene began to change.
My deductive reasoning skills have only recently received a boost, thanks to the several PhD courses I've been taking in Holland. I find my senses undergoing a systematic re-structuring: the goodness intention is to encourage solving puzzles in a logical way. But the creative streak in me (alive and kicking, still) went on to imagine several relationship-probabilities for these butterflies.
The most likely would be that the one I christened 'leader' might be the 'lady' and the two that followed her around tirelessly, not feasting on the nectar at all, should be 'suitors' - trying to impress her. And she couldn't care less! Ms Beautiful Butterfly went about her business (or so it seems), but could have secretly been leading the two 'boys' on, for all I know :-) The teasing would be her way of finding out who of the two black beauties are worthy of her. And I can't help but imagine what feelings must go through her little head and heart... Would she be excited by the attention?
I wonder if Ms Beautiful feels the same kind of excitement as women do... After all, we do refer this excitement to the flutter of "butterflies in the stomach" - don't we :-)
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