Butterflies and Perspectives

Horse: If you don’t want to be a caterpillar, how can you become a butterfly?

Caterpillar: Did you pass through so many stages before you became a horse?

Horse: Not exactly the same stages.  But stages, yes.

Caterpillar: Was it hard?  The stages, I mean.

Horse: It depends.  Being a caterpillar is not hard for all caterpillars, I guess.

Caterpillar: One grows up only by passing through the stages?

Horse: One grows real only by passing through the stages.

Caterpillar: Real?

Horse: Opposite of fraud, let’s say.

Caterpillar: Why should anyone be a fraud?

Horse: Discontent, I guess.  Not happy being what you are.  Wanting to be something else.  Somebody else.

Caterpillar: Like me?

Horse: Well.  There are many creatures who are unhappy about what they are.  Who want to be somebody else.  Becoming real is a slow process, I guess.  It needs patience.  Like being a caterpillar crawling on leaves.  And then a chrysalis. 

Caterpillar: But only we butterflies go through all those stages.

Horse: Not at all.  Everyone does.  The names of the stages differ.  Infancy, childhood, adolescence, and so on.  Many break while going through these stages.  Those who have blunt edges, glass shells, air bags, and such things. 

Caterpillar: And then?  After the break up, I mean.

Horse: Some vanish from the earth.  Some survive and learn to live without those attachments like blunt edges or glass shells.  That’s how they become real. Shedding the unwanted attachments.  It’s tough.  Shedding attachments is tough.

Caterpillar: For us that happens naturally.

Horse: So you’re luckier than the others.

Caterpillar: And I thought I was the most unlucky creature!

Horse: Perspectives.  Perspectives make the difference.