WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.390 align:middle line:84% So this is too long to read in full, 00:00:04.390 --> 00:00:05.640 align:middle line:90% and I'm going to read in part. 00:00:05.640 --> 00:00:09.720 align:middle line:84% It's a memoir piece related to why 00:00:09.720 --> 00:00:11.940 align:middle line:84% I became involved with insects in the first place. 00:00:11.940 --> 00:00:15.240 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:18.840 align:middle line:84% The essay is called "Flying with Lepidoptera." 00:00:18.840 --> 00:00:21.390 align:middle line:84% So these are some excerpts from one essay that 00:00:21.390 --> 00:00:24.600 align:middle line:84% have been sort of strung together to make it short 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:26.160 align:middle line:90% for tonight. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:28.200 align:middle line:84% "The house we lived in when I was nine 00:00:28.200 --> 00:00:30.030 align:middle line:84% was built on wooden stumps that were 00:00:30.030 --> 00:00:33.120 align:middle line:84% 10 feet high on the northwest corner of the house, 00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:36.360 align:middle line:84% but less than two feet high on the southeast. 00:00:36.360 --> 00:00:39.630 align:middle line:84% A wide veranda looked west up through gum trees 00:00:39.630 --> 00:00:44.340 align:middle line:84% and over the Brisbane river to the fields of fig tree pocket. 00:00:44.340 --> 00:00:47.310 align:middle line:84% On the top two steps leading down from the veranda, 00:00:47.310 --> 00:00:51.630 align:middle line:84% my parents sat smoking Craven A cigarettes 00:00:51.630 --> 00:00:54.030 align:middle line:84% and drinking their noggins of Beenleigh rum 00:00:54.030 --> 00:00:56.280 align:middle line:90% during summer evenings. 00:00:56.280 --> 00:00:59.640 align:middle line:84% Smoke from a mosquito coil curled around the railings, 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:03.030 align:middle line:84% its glow becoming fiery as darkness descended 00:01:03.030 --> 00:01:05.430 align:middle line:90% from behind the house. 00:01:05.430 --> 00:01:08.370 align:middle line:84% Across the river, dingoes howled. 00:01:08.370 --> 00:01:11.820 align:middle line:84% I sat on the step below mama, whose left hand played 00:01:11.820 --> 00:01:14.640 align:middle line:84% with my curls, as she talked, and talked, and talked, 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:19.200 align:middle line:84% about the past, the family, and Queensland history. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.990 align:middle line:84% Occasionally a big, dark, velvet moth 00:01:21.990 --> 00:01:25.890 align:middle line:84% flew by us and in through one of the sets of French doors 00:01:25.890 --> 00:01:28.260 align:middle line:84% where later, through teenage nights, 00:01:28.260 --> 00:01:30.780 align:middle line:84% I collected the multiplicity of moths 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:35.940 align:middle line:84% that came to the circle of light made by the lamp on my desk. 00:01:35.940 --> 00:01:38.460 align:middle line:84% Silently, during homework hours, I 00:01:38.460 --> 00:01:42.300 align:middle line:84% put moths into a killing bottle and later tipped them out 00:01:42.300 --> 00:01:45.630 align:middle line:90% onto my papers and set them. 00:01:45.630 --> 00:01:49.650 align:middle line:84% Some of the tiniest moths were beauties, with silvery scales, 00:01:49.650 --> 00:01:52.410 align:middle line:84% fringes along the trailing edges of the wings, 00:01:52.410 --> 00:01:56.550 align:middle line:84% or delicate patterns like watermarks on paper. 00:01:56.550 --> 00:02:00.750 align:middle line:84% My favorites, the plume moths, had deeply bisected wings 00:02:00.750 --> 00:02:03.180 align:middle line:84% covered in delicate cream scales, 00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:08.009 align:middle line:84% so that each wing resembled a minute, ghostly palm leaf. 00:02:08.009 --> 00:02:11.790 align:middle line:84% And through my hand lens, I gazed at each handsome scrap 00:02:11.790 --> 00:02:15.390 align:middle line:90% of nature's intricacy. 00:02:15.390 --> 00:02:17.460 align:middle line:84% Blood drains from my head at these times, 00:02:17.460 --> 00:02:21.660 align:middle line:84% and an unfathomable sensation of intimacy with other life forms 00:02:21.660 --> 00:02:23.970 align:middle line:90% takes hold. 00:02:23.970 --> 00:02:25.950 align:middle line:84% At the back of the house, steps slid down 00:02:25.950 --> 00:02:30.060 align:middle line:84% into a garden of terraced lawns, wandering paths, and flower 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:30.780 align:middle line:90% beds. 00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:34.110 align:middle line:84% And beside the steps was an oleander bush. 00:02:34.110 --> 00:02:37.200 align:middle line:84% There I watched black and white striped caterpillars 00:02:37.200 --> 00:02:40.560 align:middle line:84% with long black feelers feed and turn 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:43.890 align:middle line:84% into silvery chrysalises hanging under leaves 00:02:43.890 --> 00:02:45.375 align:middle line:90% like botanical jewelry." 00:02:45.375 --> 00:02:48.650 align:middle line:90% 00:02:48.650 --> 00:02:50.660 align:middle line:90% This is the one. 00:02:50.660 --> 00:02:54.740 align:middle line:84% "There, as the slanted morning sun caught the curve of one, 00:02:54.740 --> 00:02:57.740 align:middle line:84% another sun shone from the surface silver, 00:02:57.740 --> 00:03:00.020 align:middle line:84% lighting my childish days and shining 00:03:00.020 --> 00:03:04.520 align:middle line:84% into a future of butterflies that I would catch or watch. 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:08.720 align:middle line:84% Butterflies that hovered on the horizon of my consciousness, 00:03:08.720 --> 00:03:11.060 align:middle line:84% lifting thoughts into new layers, 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:16.960 align:middle line:84% connecting threads of ideas into a web of faith in life itself. 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:20.420 align:middle line:84% On certain warm, sunny days, a black and white butterfly 00:03:20.420 --> 00:03:23.780 align:middle line:84% slowly emerged, breaking the chrysalis, 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:28.700 align:middle line:84% bulging out, damp and limp, and then blowing itself up 00:03:28.700 --> 00:03:31.370 align:middle line:84% into a butterfly that hung there drying, 00:03:31.370 --> 00:03:34.940 align:middle line:84% before flying off with up and down waves of summer searching. 00:03:34.940 --> 00:03:39.130 align:middle line:90% 00:03:39.130 --> 00:03:41.350 align:middle line:84% Mama agreed with me that the whole business 00:03:41.350 --> 00:03:43.360 align:middle line:84% of the transformation of a stripy caterpillar, 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:46.900 align:middle line:84% a silvery chrysalis, into a delicate black and white crow 00:03:46.900 --> 00:03:50.680 align:middle line:84% butterfly was infinitely strange. 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:54.070 align:middle line:84% One day she wearily cut off a leaf with a hanging chrysalis 00:03:54.070 --> 00:03:56.620 align:middle line:84% and put it in a jar by the kitchen window 00:03:56.620 --> 00:03:59.020 align:middle line:84% so we could watch everything together 00:03:59.020 --> 00:04:03.760 align:middle line:84% before giving the fluttering captive freedom in our garden. 00:04:03.760 --> 00:04:06.010 align:middle line:84% Later, I knew that it was a species 00:04:06.010 --> 00:04:11.530 align:middle line:84% of Daniadae, the same family as the monarch butterfly. 00:04:11.530 --> 00:04:14.110 align:middle line:84% On Saturday mornings, mama and I walked in the garden, 00:04:14.110 --> 00:04:17.380 align:middle line:84% she always called it 'The Estate,' looking 00:04:17.380 --> 00:04:22.089 align:middle line:84% for butterflies, past the rose beds, along the azalea walk, 00:04:22.089 --> 00:04:24.550 align:middle line:84% under weeping willows and jacarandas, 00:04:24.550 --> 00:04:27.670 align:middle line:84% to her patch of Australian natives, 00:04:27.670 --> 00:04:31.360 align:middle line:84% in and out of papa's banana and citrus groves, 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:34.870 align:middle line:84% down beyond the mangoes to the chicken yard. 00:04:34.870 --> 00:04:38.140 align:middle line:84% We rejoiced at every black and sky blue Melissa 00:04:38.140 --> 00:04:41.170 align:middle line:84% flying high, green triangles closer 00:04:41.170 --> 00:04:44.110 align:middle line:84% to the ground, gray blue hair streaks 00:04:44.110 --> 00:04:47.620 align:middle line:84% puddling, and the great, heart-stopping bird 00:04:47.620 --> 00:04:51.460 align:middle line:84% wing, three inch long, emerald green and black wings, 00:04:51.460 --> 00:04:52.840 align:middle line:90% golden yellow abdomen. 00:04:52.840 --> 00:04:55.760 align:middle line:90% 00:04:55.760 --> 00:04:57.590 align:middle line:84% I think mama was delighted to find 00:04:57.590 --> 00:05:01.970 align:middle line:84% that I could be interested in something, anything, because 00:05:01.970 --> 00:05:05.540 align:middle line:84% of my complete failure at school. 00:05:05.540 --> 00:05:07.640 align:middle line:84% Once I watched her work from the kitchen window 00:05:07.640 --> 00:05:10.580 align:middle line:84% as I made her a cup of tea in the afternoon. 00:05:10.580 --> 00:05:13.430 align:middle line:84% She was wearing an old brown corduroy skirt, 00:05:13.430 --> 00:05:16.160 align:middle line:84% and heather sweater down at the elbow, 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:19.670 align:middle line:84% old brown lace-up gardening shoes, cotton stockings 00:05:19.670 --> 00:05:21.710 align:middle line:90% with long letters mended. 00:05:21.710 --> 00:05:24.470 align:middle line:84% She knelt on mown lawn by the long flower garden, 00:05:24.470 --> 00:05:27.080 align:middle line:84% with a small fork, turned black soil, 00:05:27.080 --> 00:05:31.550 align:middle line:84% pulled out grass and weeds, nut weed, feed weed, pig weed, 00:05:31.550 --> 00:05:34.580 align:middle line:84% fat hen, into a heap on the lawn. 00:05:34.580 --> 00:05:37.880 align:middle line:84% She stopped to gaze at the tall delphiniums by, 00:05:37.880 --> 00:05:40.490 align:middle line:84% leaned over to smell mauve and dark 00:05:40.490 --> 00:05:44.780 align:middle line:84% royal blue, looked away to the dry desert 00:05:44.780 --> 00:05:49.160 align:middle line:84% Western Bush by stringy bark gums and brown river. 00:05:49.160 --> 00:05:53.150 align:middle line:84% Then she sat back and let the fork drop. 00:05:53.150 --> 00:05:58.100 align:middle line:84% She became a rough stone statue, and late sun turned gray hair 00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:00.500 align:middle line:90% to a veil of bronze. 00:06:00.500 --> 00:06:03.950 align:middle line:84% She wiped steam from rimless trifocal glasses, 00:06:03.950 --> 00:06:08.510 align:middle line:84% and it seemed that I heard moaning sounds, shocking, 00:06:08.510 --> 00:06:11.990 align:middle line:84% not of the physical kind, and I couldn't understand it. 00:06:11.990 --> 00:06:14.690 align:middle line:84% And then a bright yellow Pierrot butterfly 00:06:14.690 --> 00:06:17.030 align:middle line:90% landed on a wallflower nearby. 00:06:17.030 --> 00:06:22.450 align:middle line:84% She smiled and returned to her task, and I was happy then. 00:06:22.450 --> 00:06:24.220 align:middle line:84% On rainy days we sometimes looked 00:06:24.220 --> 00:06:26.530 align:middle line:84% at homes and gardens magazines together 00:06:26.530 --> 00:06:28.210 align:middle line:84% and imagined all the ways we could 00:06:28.210 --> 00:06:30.370 align:middle line:90% do more projects in the garden. 00:06:30.370 --> 00:06:33.010 align:middle line:90% Make paths of stepping stones. 00:06:33.010 --> 00:06:35.770 align:middle line:90% Build a pond or a rock garden. 00:06:35.770 --> 00:06:38.260 align:middle line:90% Grow creepers over the wall. 00:06:38.260 --> 00:06:41.230 align:middle line:84% In one of the magazines which was sent from England, 00:06:41.230 --> 00:06:43.930 align:middle line:84% there was a painting of a butterfly almost 00:06:43.930 --> 00:06:46.210 align:middle line:84% identical to the American painted 00:06:46.210 --> 00:06:50.530 align:middle line:84% lady on a postcard from traveling Aunt Muriel. 00:06:50.530 --> 00:06:53.830 align:middle line:84% And it was my introduction to the surprising thought 00:06:53.830 --> 00:06:56.170 align:middle line:84% that the same kind of butterfly could 00:06:56.170 --> 00:06:58.700 align:middle line:90% occur all around the world. 00:06:58.700 --> 00:07:02.410 align:middle line:84% In fact, Vanessa cardui, as entomologists know it, 00:07:02.410 --> 00:07:06.880 align:middle line:84% is the most abundant butterfly known. 00:07:06.880 --> 00:07:12.070 align:middle line:84% In the thread of painted ladies, one wound through my life. 00:07:12.070 --> 00:07:14.020 align:middle line:84% In England I saw them with delight 00:07:14.020 --> 00:07:17.230 align:middle line:84% in the heathland of Sussex, as they nectared 00:07:17.230 --> 00:07:19.630 align:middle line:90% on dandelions and thistles. 00:07:19.630 --> 00:07:21.550 align:middle line:84% And I walked from village to village 00:07:21.550 --> 00:07:25.060 align:middle line:84% with a book of poems and a light tread. 00:07:25.060 --> 00:07:27.940 align:middle line:84% I saw them in E.B. Ford's collection of butterflies 00:07:27.940 --> 00:07:32.050 align:middle line:84% with bird bites out of their wings at the Oxford museum. 00:07:32.050 --> 00:07:34.240 align:middle line:84% In Kenya, I watched a male patrolling 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:36.400 align:middle line:84% for females on the Serengeti plains, 00:07:36.400 --> 00:07:38.260 align:middle line:90% finally enticing one to mate. 00:07:38.260 --> 00:07:40.960 align:middle line:90% 00:07:40.960 --> 00:07:43.900 align:middle line:84% And the butterflies remind me of how two high school teachers 00:07:43.900 --> 00:07:47.830 align:middle line:84% convinced me I was not stupid, insistent 00:07:47.830 --> 00:07:51.220 align:middle line:84% that I combine my love of nature and my butterfly fascination 00:07:51.220 --> 00:07:53.890 align:middle line:90% with conventional achievement. 00:07:53.890 --> 00:07:56.650 align:middle line:84% Their victory, though, was fully accomplished only 00:07:56.650 --> 00:08:00.310 align:middle line:84% by the thrill I had in surprising mama. 00:08:00.310 --> 00:08:03.070 align:middle line:84% The joy it gave us both to find that I was not 00:08:03.070 --> 00:08:09.430 align:middle line:84% a dunce, that the vocational guidance men had been wrong. 00:08:09.430 --> 00:08:14.260 align:middle line:84% Here in my Arizona garden, I see Vanessa, the painted ladies, 00:08:14.260 --> 00:08:16.060 align:middle line:90% regularly. 00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:19.030 align:middle line:84% They perch on the flagstone, visit the yellow Viguiera 00:08:19.030 --> 00:08:21.850 align:middle line:84% flowers, and stop by the small pool 00:08:21.850 --> 00:08:24.610 align:middle line:90% where birds and coyotes drink. 00:08:24.610 --> 00:08:27.970 align:middle line:84% Every spring, migrants come north from Mexico, 00:08:27.970 --> 00:08:31.000 align:middle line:84% and here in Arizona lay their eggs. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.669 align:middle line:84% In some years they keep coming, air 00:08:33.669 --> 00:08:35.710 align:middle line:84% filled with the purposeful floating 00:08:35.710 --> 00:08:38.710 align:middle line:84% flight of the ubiquitous butterfly, 00:08:38.710 --> 00:08:41.980 align:middle line:84% one of evolution's shimmering phenomena, 00:08:41.980 --> 00:08:45.880 align:middle line:84% a butterfly present in the Earth in billions, 00:08:45.880 --> 00:08:48.670 align:middle line:84% yet each one a potential epiphany, 00:08:48.670 --> 00:08:53.770 align:middle line:84% a passing moment of emotion, a reason to stay alive. 00:08:53.770 --> 00:08:56.740 align:middle line:84% We don't yet know how each generation of Vanessa 00:08:56.740 --> 00:09:00.010 align:middle line:84% actually knows what to do, proper flight 00:09:00.010 --> 00:09:03.520 align:middle line:90% direction, proper host choice. 00:09:03.520 --> 00:09:09.310 align:middle line:84% Success cannot be denied however, Vanessa is beautiful. 00:09:09.310 --> 00:09:11.650 align:middle line:84% It's highly adapted to the versatile life 00:09:11.650 --> 00:09:16.060 align:middle line:84% of a worldwide migrant, opportunistic, high flying, 00:09:16.060 --> 00:09:17.440 align:middle line:90% flexible. 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:20.830 align:middle line:84% It escapes vicissitudes by moving on. 00:09:20.830 --> 00:09:23.170 align:middle line:84% It's not held back by bad weather. 00:09:23.170 --> 00:09:26.950 align:middle line:84% It escapes enemy, it explores, it finds. 00:09:26.950 --> 00:09:31.630 align:middle line:84% And that undulating flight, so deceptively absent minded, 00:09:31.630 --> 00:09:36.070 align:middle line:84% is as consistent and determined as waves on the ocean, 00:09:36.070 --> 00:09:39.490 align:middle line:84% as sure to arrive as sun in the morning. 00:09:39.490 --> 00:09:43.780 align:middle line:84% And so I rejoice in Vanessa, and all those scale-winged beauties 00:09:43.780 --> 00:09:48.220 align:middle line:84% that represent life lived, life among the flowers, my life 00:09:48.220 --> 00:09:50.500 align:middle line:90% fulfilled for my mama. 00:09:50.500 --> 00:09:51.000 align:middle line:90%