The butterfly - A short story

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Once there was a butterfly. It had a child who was very young. The child crossed the larva stage and became a pupa. The child wanted to prolong its pupa stage and rest while the parent wanted it to come out of the pupa stage and spread its wings. The parent butterfly was upset because the child does not want to spread its wings in the right time which may limit the flying capacity of the child when it becomes a butterfly. The pupa wanted to feed more because it believed that feeding more would make its body more powerful.

The butterfly was deeply concerned about the child.  Out of concern and desperation, the butterfly scolded the pupa saying “Do not become a parasite, you are becoming my liability”. The pupa out of anger told the parent, “You have no concern for me. I do not want to be your liability. I will fly away from the home once I get freedom and strength in the wings".

The butterfly explained its child with a smile "My dear child we both want the same thing, to make you fly high. You believe that nourishing your body makes you more powerful. My knowledge says that resting without the discipline will increase the body weight and put a burden on the wings."

The pupa angrily asked the butterfly “you called me a parasite, what does it mean?” The Butterfly replied "My dear child, Parasite doesn’t mean that you are parasite, it only means you are in dependent mode. Every organism starts its life as a dependent. I also lived some part of my life as a dependent. I want to you get rid of this intermediary phase quickly by thinking in a mature way."

The pupa asked what about the word liability. The parent said “The meaning of liability is burden. No child in the world is ever a physical liability to the parent. The love of the parent for the child turns into a pain to the parent when it finds that its child is heading towards a threat. The pain of concern for the child then becomes a burden on the mind of the parent. The burden of this pain is experienced as a liability by the parent. It is the pain which is the liability but not the child. Sometimes people don’t mean what they say.”

"Every mother and father want the child to fly high but not to fly-away."

The pupa understood that it was just a communication gap between him and his parent. It lived happily ever after with his parent flying high in the sky.

 

This short story is a reply letter written by me to my son. My son wrote a letter to me expressing his displeasure on my words during a heated conversation. In reply I sent this story as a letter which made him understand the parent's perspective for the child.