The text on the image reads
What does a moose think of a butterfly?
To quote Diana Paxson without context, "Nothing argues with a moose."
I woke up this morning thinking about butterflies, thanks to FB Memories. (Sometimes I think I should delete everything on social media that's over a year old. Who really wants to know that much about me? I ask while writing a blog.) So, once I scraped myself out of bed, I put on the dress that makes me feel like a butterfly. Yes, I know, it's black. There are plenty of black or mostly black butterflies. It works for me. It's all about the sleeves. I spent a bunch of time thinking about seeming fragility and the appearance versus reality of fearlessness.
Later on, I read something by Diana Paxson and her line about the moose jumped out at me, made me giggle, and reminded me of a few things.
I remembered being in eastern Germany for a music festival with friends and posing under a fiberglass moose head on a wall. The pose was much more striking in my mind than in reality. My hand-antlers looked more like tatty butterfly wings, or claws, and my elbows were everywhere.
I also remembered a living, wild moose from a respectful distance and a bison walking inches past our car. Those memories are hazy due to age, but I think they became more beautiful that way. The crispness of the air between us and the moose is still in my nose; but the water on the lake or pond has gone vapory, and the trees keep changing species. The bison is all bison now. The car interior is down to outlines and finger painted colors.
Looking at both the bison and the moose, I didn't feel small or fragile even though I was both those things in comparison to them, like a butterfly is in comparison to me. I probably was frightened, but I don't remember that. I remember beauty and awe.
If these are the things that hit my child-brain, what things come to a moose brain or butterfly brain when they come face to face?
In other news, there are ninja kittens on my socks, complete with stabby swordy things. They seem to fit with my butterfly-moose dichotomy. And I have no idea how long I've had that necklace, but I'm really glad I found it this morning. All told, I'm calling this one a good day.