What would you say to a kid, age 7 or 8, who was swatting butterflies with a tennis racket? There isn’t a plausible defense other than he was a kid. For me, I was that boy at one time, lucky enough to grow up in the country by a nearby field loaded with butterflies, mostly Monarchs, every summer. But I had no sense of the “environment,” in fact, I’m certain I didn’t know the term. My narrow minded goal was to stun the insect and put it in a mason jar with holes punched in the lid. 
Eventually, our neighbor gave me a butterfly net with the provision that I wouldn’t swat anymore and that I’d learn something about the life of a butterfly. I followed orders.
As I look back at my posts of the past year, I note that many have photos of various butterflies. I have flowers that attract them. This coming of age is not guilt, although I am sure there is a therapist out there willing to produce such an analysis.
Nearby fields loaded with butterflies are fast disappearing, victims of housing developments and farming practices, but not so much from the threat of kids with tennis rackets..
67Steffen.com 
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