I just looked at this BBC In Pictures Article about the risks that deforestation pose on the overwintering monarch butterflies near Mexico City. The captions are fairly sad, but thinking of monarchs stirs up some nostalgia--memories of childhood in Minnetonka.
One summer, we found some eggs on the underside of milkweed plants that grew along the bike trail behind our house. We raised the little eggs into grand monarch butterflies in an aquarium on our deck. We watched them hatch, grow fat eating what was once their home, hang as pupas from the screen cover on the aquarium and finally break free from their dark caccoon, slowly drying and stretching their wings before flying free, on their way to Mexico. I had all but forgotten about this little experiment...Being a child is so great--carefree, watching the miracle and mystery of life unfold in front of your eyes behind the glass of an aquarium in the still, shaded safety of a deck your dad built.
I do miss those days and think of them fondly. Watching children now and trying to expose them to some of those mysteries in life are what make me excited about becoming (and I guess, kind of being) a teacher.
The fact that these endangered butterflies--something that my environmentalist sides wants to protect and give a voice to--remind me of my days of childhood. On the same vein I want to instill that feeling of protection in today's youth through awe and wonder. Strange how thoughts progress, strange how that butterfly affect can produce changes in brain waves too...
I'm in a pseudo-philosophical rambly mood. A good day to teach To Be in the past, present, and future tenses.
One summer, we found some eggs on the underside of milkweed plants that grew along the bike trail behind our house. We raised the little eggs into grand monarch butterflies in an aquarium on our deck. We watched them hatch, grow fat eating what was once their home, hang as pupas from the screen cover on the aquarium and finally break free from their dark caccoon, slowly drying and stretching their wings before flying free, on their way to Mexico. I had all but forgotten about this little experiment...Being a child is so great--carefree, watching the miracle and mystery of life unfold in front of your eyes behind the glass of an aquarium in the still, shaded safety of a deck your dad built.
I do miss those days and think of them fondly. Watching children now and trying to expose them to some of those mysteries in life are what make me excited about becoming (and I guess, kind of being) a teacher.
The fact that these endangered butterflies--something that my environmentalist sides wants to protect and give a voice to--remind me of my days of childhood. On the same vein I want to instill that feeling of protection in today's youth through awe and wonder. Strange how thoughts progress, strange how that butterfly affect can produce changes in brain waves too...
I'm in a pseudo-philosophical rambly mood. A good day to teach To Be in the past, present, and future tenses.
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