Welcome to The Butterfly Campaign!

No, it’s not just a random blog name that came to me during the night: it’s actually a campaign. You see, I think that the world has gotten a little bit lax in recognizing the butterflies in our lives! If politicians can campaign day in and day out to rally support for their pompous causes, I figure that a teenage girl from Kalamazoo, Michigan can campaign for something I believe in, even if it is in a smallish way.

“But what is this cause, and what in the name of Cedric Diggory does it have to do with butterflies?” I hear you say. Well, let me explain it to you in the best way I know how: First, you need to get your thinking caps on and imagine with me. Imagine that you are tucked somewhere warm and cozy, preferably next to a large window of some sort. Through this window, you have a view of an outdoor place on a particularly rainy day. As you sit, staring dreamily outside at the scene before you, you begin noticing that the people you are absentmindedly but slightly creepily observing fall into two behavioral categories. The first category or behavior that you would observe would be what I lovingly refer to as caterpillar behavior. People who conform to this first, and sadly more popular type of behavior would be distinguished by several key features – Number one; in this particular situation, they would probably have their heads bent in obvious dismay, the body language of the mop from the Swiffer commercial, and a face which somewhat resembled your face immediately following your first taste of lemon. If you still aren’t sure at this point whether or not the person you are observing falls into the caterpillar category, I’ll give you the key to picking a caterpillar out of a crowd: Complaining. For this example, they’ll probably be complaining about the rain. However, if it were sunny, they’d be complaining about the sun. Essentially, they look at the caterpillars of life and see just that: a disgusting cross between a worm and a centipede that spends all its days eating away at their loveliest garden endeavors. Thus, the classification of caterpillar behavior.

Now for the second behavior you might observe through your window to this outdoor place on this rainy day: Butterfly behavior.

I believe that the best example of butterfly behavior I have ever seen was one displayed by a random little boy at a random rainy location a number of random years ago. Well, actually it was my brother, at Disney World, 7 years ago. Now, normal people would get particularly irritated if it began to rain during their day at Magic Kingdom in Disney World, which is presumably the happiest place on earth. Most people. Not Parker. I remember him practically jumping out of my mother’s arms, his little chocolate-brown eyes sparkling with joy and his chubby cheeks pushed back by his huge grin. Leaving the rest of my family to huddle in our miserable caterpillar state, Parker joyously ran to the center of the walkway, looked around briefly to locate the absolute largest puddle he could, ran to it, and with an ear-piercing shriek of excitement, jumped. Soon, due to the jovial example of my two-year-old brother, the rest of my family was also happily jumping in the puddles – even my 6’4” dad. The rides, characters, and sunny moments have all faded from memory, but my little brother’s example of butterfly behavior is still firmly ingrained in my memory.

Parker looked at the caterpillar that life gave him and, when life gave him the option, chose to see much more than just a caterpillar: a baby butterfly.

“Be Happy. It is one way of being wise.” – Sidonie Gabrielle

My campaign? I'm hoping we can all see the butterflies.

Again, Welcome to The Butterfly Campaign!