Butterfly Kisses – Cape Town, South Africa – [04/01/2014]

I saved a life today.

Just a little life. A tiny one. Not even a person, but a life none-the-less.

I was getting ready to host one of the sporting events, on the inside pool deck. Only one person showed up, and I was chatting with him and my gaze strayed to the window..

Hey look! A butterfly!

Oh, he must be on the outside of the glass…

And I look a little closer and something seems off…so I go up to the window and crouch down so the butterfly is at eye level with me.

No sir, it’s inside! She must have flown in when the dome was still open! Poor thing is trapped.

You can’t catch a butterfly by hand, and even if you could move fast enough, you’d actually hurt them as even the lightest touch will rub the microscopic scales off their wings. Plus this poor creature was obviously terrified. Beating itself against the vast expanse of glass, obviously completely confused as to why it couldn’t get through to where it had come from. And this was a stunning creature, with a wingspan nearly the size of my open hand, it would have been easy just to sit and stare at it all day. But I couldn’t let her suffer, especially not a butterfly, never a butterfly…

So after the ping pong (such as it was) was over, I went up to the bar and asked for a pint glass and a plate, went back and knelt next to the window, and tried my very best to think of what my father would do. Y’see, my father has this gift with things – particularly birds – he can calm them down. I once saw him catch a terrified hummingbird with his bare hands. But even he – as far as I know – had never attempted to catch a butterfly without a net. So I took a very deep breath…and found myself talking to this creature who had no earthly way of understanding me…

Shh…just calm down, you’re going to break a wing doing that…

I managed to coax her onto the plate and tip the glass over top of her, her wingspan was so wide that she couldn’t properly spread her wings in there and I was worried the whole way down to the promenade deck that she was going to hurt herself trying to get free..

Shhh…please calm down, you’re going to hurt yourself…it’s okay, you’re okay now…

Eventually I got to the promenade deck and lifted the glass and watched her hover for a few minutes, clearly totally confused before she disappeared from view.

My Mum used to tell me a story, about two men walking along a beach, and one of them was constantly bending over to pick up starfish that had been stranded by low tide and toss them back into the ocean.

“Why do you keep doing that?” his companion says in frustration, “it’s not like it actually makes any difference!”

His friend shrugs, bends over and returns another starfish to the ocean..

“Well, it made a difference to that one didn’t it?”