The Butterfly Monologues
Sylvia Shawcross
There are four types of people in the world. Well, in this world anyway.
Now, the first type of person looks at the world and asks “Why?” They gnash their teeth and glare glumly at the sidewalk as they mournfully make their way to work, convinced of their own impotence to change the world. By the time they get to work their takeout coffee is lukewarm.
The second type of person looks at the world and asks “Why Not?” They plan and dream and flutter-rush about working and volunteering, painfully convinced that with just enough dedication and determination and fire-eyed devotion the world can be a better place. They never have enough time to drink coffee.
Then there is the third type of person. They don’t even bother to ask why or why not. They have already figured out that they cannot change the world and if anything, the world changes them. They’ve figured out the whole crux of the matter through years of struggle and have become indifferent through adaptation. They don’t bother to ask for coffee and drink what’s put in front of them.
But the fourth type… Oh the fourth type… They are the soul of humanity, dancing in the light of a new day with an evangelical bling shimmering in their eyes like a summer rain on a sky puddle. They have figured out the world is not worth the effort because there are wars and murders and environmental catastrophes and stubbed toes, and corruption around every blessed corner. So they have gone off to create their own worlds. And they are lovely worlds. Such lovely places!
There they are on the computer sitting omnipotently at keyboards like gods on Mount Olympus constructing alternative realities to live in. Anything they ever dreamed. Anything they ever wanted. Where nothing bad ever happens unless they so decree—picking and choosing casts of characters and plots and conversations and sunshine and background colour and music.
And in their world they can roller blade down mountains and ice skate across vast sleepy deserts. And fly! Yes, fly! With gossamer wings as butterflies across candy fields of flowers and wet wide oceans hush sweet at daybreak.
But one day they look up from the screen and see a cold cup of coffee sitting on a desk and their long, ragged fingernails on pale hands limply hanging on a keyboard. And in this other world cobwebs decorate the corners and dust lies in still grey gauze on furniture, and so they look around and say, “Am I a butterfly pretending I was a person, or am I a person pretending I was a butterfly?”
And then they rush back to the screen world where they can spread iridescent wings in screen light swift soft on a pink grey cloud, and they see a butterfly looking back at them in a baleful indifference, and a sense of dread and horror cuts like a winter wind.
“Why is the butterfly looking at me? I could have sworn I was the butterfly who is now looking at me. So it must be I’m a person running a computer program pretending to be a butterfly. Or maybe this is all a world made by another computer program inside another computer program in another world. Maybe I don’t exist as a person or a butterfly! Maybe I don’t exist at all! Maybe there are no worlds! Maybe nothing is real! Maybe there is no coffee! My God! My God!”
So of the four types of people in their respective worlds, not one of them drank a nice cup of hot coffee. This, of course, is what is wrong with the world that you and I are in. But never mind all that. “What’s a butterfly gotta do to get a cup of coffee in this place, anyway?”
Syl Shawcross lives in Quebec, Canada and is author of “The Get-Over-Yourself Self-Help Book and other essays,” (available somewhere apparently) which contains this particular piece written approximately in 2007.
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We become wretched as we abandon our Self ( Spirit ), the pure, perfect, eternal essence of our being located in our heart whose foremost trait is Bliss. The most wretched are those most distant, the ultra rich tyrant philanthropaths. These are destined for eternal Hell as no punishment in the mortal realm can suffice to purify them. Torments there are unbearable to humans, and when Narada asked Narayana ( Vishnu ) how the body can survive them he replied ” You get a body which can withstand it “. ( From the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam )
Pity them, if you can.
Might I suggest a fifth type of person? One who devotedly roasts and grinds his or her own coffee beans (organic, if you please) and always drinks their self made coffee hot, and thus fortified proceeds with their day in a manner somewhat akin to a type four personality: they have already figured out that they cannot change the world as a whole, but they can seek out kindred spirits with whom they can eek out some small degree of control over at least some aspects of their own lives. They’ve probably gone through somewhat of a type three phase earlier in their lives, and by dint of those experiences, along years of reading and intensive study, have figured out the whole crux of the matter. They have come to understand that the world is run by a relative handful of insanely wealthy psychopaths who have, over a period of… Read more »
I love your work..there is so much intriguing subtlety in it. I would venture to say there is only one type of person, a blind one…we are all living an illusion…all of us. Ha ha…whatever…I have gone koo koo
Sane people in crazy worlds always think they’re going kookoo… This too shall pass. There’s a LOT of deliberate head games going on right now. Never seen the likes of it. It is almost impossible to know what is true and what isn’t nowadays. Just have to step back now and then and watch the sunrise.
syl, Is it OK if I take a step back for the sunset?
The kookoo thing’s not so bad. It helps me spot the crazy stuff. As in it takes one to know one.
😅
Another possible type: Neurotics who focus solely on the neuroses of others.
And then there are the neurotics who comment on the neurotics who focus solely on the neuroses of others.
It would hardly occur to a cocker spaniel that it “really” is an Irish setter. The transition from the real self to an idealized self occurs only in human beings whose real selves have become indistinct, irrelevant; that is, no longer having a notable quality, style, attractiveness, etc.
But if that cocker spaniel does decide s/he’s an Irish setter then we’d call him/er Irish, right? 🐩
For all neurotics, reality will inevitably become noticeable in an unwelcome or intrusive manner (i.e, obtrude) into their lives. The real world shows them that an hour has but sixty minutes and that they must wait in line, like everybody else; while the taxi driver or the offG comment treats them as though they were simply ordinary mortals.
Do you suppose this might explain someone such as Bill Gates?
And so on…
yes. kind of the definition of infinite neurosis
In yer dreams if you think e-vehicles is the Future (and they are certainly NOT environmentally friendly).
Myself, i’m gonna invest in a horse-breeding farm. There’s more certainty in Horses than in EV’s, and there’s the side business, selling horse manure for gardens.
I dare the Green Zealots to say horse manure is not ‘Green’.
you must not have been paying attention recently.
The only reason they have an “overload of animal manure” is because they don’t use it on their fields and instead use chemical fertilizers.
that fact doesn’t stop the global warming hoax being used as the primary pretext for the Great Reset, does it.
Dutch horse breeding will be protected as their product: Top dressage and show jumping horses are the envy of Europe (competes with Germany). And of course, they sell only to the wealthy who can afford £10,000 for a decent quality yearling with top form stallions often going for 10 X more. As for selling manure: a few around my village sell it for 50 pence per back. In larger amounts the collection and movement of animal waste requires special waste licensing. As for breeding: in large numbers say more than 30:40 per year there is a gamble that the foal will make it to a yearling or a 3 year old unblemished and injury free, but there’s that economy of numbers. And horses stupidly injure themselves all the time. Then there’s feeding: an art form itself but a bag of quality feed (20 kg) has now gone from £12/13 to… Read more »
Haha. There MUST be a fifth kind of person. I’ve got my hot cup of coffee, while sitting omnipotently here at my keyboard like a goddess on Mount Olympus, sipping while it’s still hot and fragrant.
There’s only one type of person in this world, people who eventually die.
Anyway, and on that cheery note, I’m off for a cycle seeing as it’s 6:48am. I’ll have my coffee when I get back.
One curious observation though Sylvia, I can always tell your the writer of post, just by the title.
yeah, i’m just bugging people
Am I a man dreaming I’m a butterfly or…zzz. There are two types of people in the world: those who fit people into types, and those who aren’t taken with typology and fitting people into anything. It’s about power, control. Which is why in this world, hellbent on power, so many do conform to types, like mass manufactured products of scientific management, like genetically modified organisms of ‘vacination’. Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to type.
Seriously Niko? You think Syl is nonironically talking about types?
Only two stars..
Because haha this “coffe dream” is also brainwashed western vision, blobalized:
Dissapointing article:
Caffeine is unhealthy,
Try to get out of matrix, and then give advices , Syl;
Most of you are so deeeep in this corporate “culture”, that all you want is just better prison, isn’t it ?
Apart of this, good examples of different levels of so called life.
Can;t you take a little light-hearted philosophical banter, man? It’s about: don’t forget to smell the roses in all of this shit we’re in.
BTW, studies about coffee come up with both good and bad effects for humans.
And, lastly, coffee drinking has ancient roots that well and truly predate the corporate world.
Coffee
Coffee cultivation has undoubtedly wiped out hundreds of species of plants ,trees, animals, insects and more. I very rarely use the stuff anymore.
Make no assumptions Polish Bloke. I take different positions all the time to illustrate points. This was written 15 years ago.
Dust…… I think to myself, I just dusted the other day. Damn. It builds up so fast. Overnight sometimes, it seems. It makes me think of sedimentary rock. If I never dusted again, how long will it take for the dust to form a solid crust? What will become of me after I die, I think as my mind wanders? Will my ashes be part of a layer of limestone in some shallow sea like a trilobite? Will there still be people on Earth? Oops. I need to stay focused and start dusting while I continue preparing for fending off the unemployed-deranged-extremist-lunatic-climagechange-fanatics that could show up on my at doorstep any day looking for a food and shelter. I am preparing my statement to the beggars……GET A JOB AND GROW UP! THE SKY IS NOT FALLING! Something like that. Maybe a brief summary of the story of the Ant and… Read more »
Dust never sleeps.
Does anyone know how Neil is getting on?
do you mean Neil “Censor Rogan” Young?
I swore I was gonna quit posting FK Neil Y everytime someone mentions him but see you made me type it again….
Maybe ease back on the marijuana use there! But that site is delightful. Thanks for the link.
I wish that was my excuse.
Haven’t touched the stuff in 45 years.
Simpson oil seemed to help my wife’s appetite while suffering from lung cancer, however. It did not cure her, as it was touted by many to do. (I wonder if Simpson was ever released from jail.)
A strong batch of brownies back in the 70s did us in one evening. It took days for the effects to fully dissipate.
Would never try that again. Not even a tempting gummie.
I just bought an Aesop Fables book for the grand kids, among other similar books.
I am surprised it (and other books that promote morality) hasn’t been banned by the Democrats.
You think those idjits know who Aesop was?
“In SHAM DEMOCRACY USA it is all rigged.”
“Fake! Fake! Fake!”
“We do not have choices. We have owners. The War Racketeer Corporate Fascist Eugenicist Oligarch Mobster Psycho Nazis own us.”
Someone have a link to where I can buy one of these shirts?!
FYI
https://www.blinklife4us.com/covid-19-the-test-are-rigged-tee?prop%5Bcolor%5D=royal_blue&prop%5Bsize%5D=&product=1&item=965167051&side=back
Oh oh too late. Can’t wear that any more here in Germany given the new law that anything contrary to the official narrative will get you fined, in jail or killed…I kid you not
https://bucktee.com/product/covid-19-the-tests-are-rigged-the-death-count-is-false-masks-shirt
The hooded sweatshirt is on order…….. Thank you very much!
Hmm, is the Costco shopper commenter Maxwell? I’ve always wondered what he looks like! 😎
I was thinking that it was perhaps Field McConnell (ex US Pilot) – I wondered whatever happened to Field Mc after the US Authorities imprisoned him on fabricated charges?
An interesting and poetic take on Zhuangzi’s “Butterfly Dream.”
But I have to wonder why Off-G seems to be ignoring one of the larger elephants in the room right now, i.e., the evidence that the so-called Covid “vaxxes” contain what appear to be self-assembling nanobots driven by AI and energized by EMF radiation from, for example, 5G technology. Not too many independent media platforms are addressing this issue, aside from Zeee Media and The Expose.
There was a time when I was very skeptical about all this. Not anymore.
If I missed this discussion, someone please steer me to a recent Off-G article.
Thanks.
Maybe it’s something that Todd Hayden can have a look at.
Very good 😅
Plot twist : “My new patient seems to be late.”
People just don’t know how an elephant reacts when it is acknowledged in a room
People as living beings or people as personae – makes all the difference. A quantised belief and perception will classify or order according to selected and weighted characteristics. Who decides? Contest for narrative becomes the ‘official’ reality, regardless that even this will be seen and used differently at different times by different people. That human thinking makes images, models or constructs of the world and becomes invested in them as a stakeholder by dint of emotionally invested reaction and thus identity. These are internalised by social reinforcement or tacit mutual agreements to become ‘normals’ for families’ groups or ideologically set identities. But that doesn’t mean we create reality, but that we cocreate our personal (and collectively contexted) experience of reality. The current reversals arise from lockdown in imaged modelling or narrative led identity, set against true or open and honest relational being and exchange. Change is the nature of a… Read more »
Sophistry is a great drug.
Ah yes. A fun frolic in the nether world… It reminded me of this gem: >
Soulmate sounds like something Satan puts in his coffee
– Anonymous –
As the saying goes, life is what you make it.
Want to be saved? Look in the mirror for your savior.
Being happy and content is a choice we have to make every day.
LUCK is spelled hard work.
Luck is the cumulative effect of every decision we make.
We only control one thing in this world, and that is ourselves.
Well-stated. The rubes that down-voted your post have no concept of good fortune being directly correlated to hard work. In fact, I see more people putting more effort into doing less than at any time in my 55+ years.
Your first statement regarding happiness being a “choice we make every day” is spot-on. I refuse to address the differences between generations, as the younger generations were raised by my generation. Hence, there is plenty of blame to spread around.
Point is, everyone needs to get their eyes off of all the distractions being foisted upon us and begin, once again (and for the first time for many), to engage in reality.
Down votes are the people that still want to hang onto the victimhood ideology.
Good luck with that.
Best comment!!
Hard work is not a choice for slaves and mules and donkeys.
And if we find ourselves in a dungeon run by lucky, hard working types who equate happiness with success, all we have to do is nix a bigger spoon to dig our way out!
What’s a sky puddle?
Makes me think of the current ‘nudge’ to live vicariously through a digital-twin in the MetaVerse panopticon.
So, if someone in Japan thinking (or pretending) he’s a butterfly flutters his supposed wings – will I feel the breeze in Maryland, USA? And if so: when? And will it cool my coffee?
You mean, “How long will it take to cool your coffee?”. The Climate Change fanatic’s assumption is that it will.
But I thought the planet was warming so it would be a warm breeze and coffee wouldn’t cool much. I figure should get there around Solstice. ☀
alternate ai realities, permanent loops of incarceration at a soul level, this is where it leads, once caught in this, there is no way back. Soul harvest
listen and make your own mind up
https://www.mixcloud.com/offplanetradio/triunity-series-with-dr-shmuel-asher-episode-6-simulacrum-building-the-perfect-beast/
give me strength ……….
there
yeah, and EVERYBODY works in offices, lol.
there’s people who do know about what no 4 is implying.
Here is a fifth type: ‘a person that is stupefied from what he sees in the news and how people react to it and then wonders how the world could be so derailed, which derailment goes back many years before he was born.
And then wonders how they were ever able to send, fi, men to the moon
Then finds out that they never sent men to the moon
And then starts to wonder about all sorts of other realities, like nuclear bombs, dinosaurs, the titanic and the ice berg, climate change, etc
And then finds the solution for all his problems, ie to think for himself and act local, not global.
Fi instance, he looks at the sky, sees happy little chemtrails and concludes from that observation that warm and dry weather is coming ahead.
And so on and so forth…
During Convid, people were observed drinking coffee on a train lifting their face masks up and down to have a sip! But what’s the latest on some of these face masks. Well, there’s more bad news for those who are still mask wearing coffee drinkers!
In a study of 12 face masks, every mask contained titanium dioxide (TiO2) particles in at least one layer, at levels that “exceeded the acceptable exposure level.”
The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies titanium dioxide as a Group 2B carcinogen, which means it is “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by inhalation. A meta-analysis called for a rethinking of nano-TiO2 safety, citing numerous toxic effects in humans and aquatic animals.
See: Verleysen, E., Ledecq, M., Siciliani, L. et al. Titanium dioxide particles frequently present in face masks intended for general use require regulatory control. Sci Rep 12, 2529 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06605-w
-CO, Upon first arrival of masks in Canada they immediately rejected them as containing a carcinogen. That was years ago, but they then ceased to talk about it & accepted the same lot they’d earlier rejected. Appears the political pollution empowered the physical pollution.
Today surgeons operating on people’s lungs are finding nano-particles of plastic in the deepest part of their lungs.
Nanoparticle use is nothing new Penelope, they’ve been using them in addition to face masks for drug delivery and also in vaccines for a few years now but do not usually admit that they are potentially toxic and can cause energy disturbance fields and foci in the body if the particles are insoluble and become trapped in the connective tissue matrix etc. Here’s a few references on the use of these nanoparticles: –
Mudshinge SR, Deore AB, Patil S, Bhalgat CM. Nanoparticles: Emerging carriers for drug delivery. Saudi Pharm J. 2011 Jul;19(3):129-41. doi: 10.1016/j.jsps.2011.04.001. Epub 2011 Apr 21. PMID: 23960751; PMCID: PMC3744999.
Alyautdin RN, Petrov VE, Langer K, et al. Delivery of loperamide across the blood-brain barrier with polysorbate 80-coated polybutylcyanoacrylate nanoparticles. J Pharm Res. 1997;14:325–8.
Gregory AE, Titball R, Williamson D. Vaccine delivery using nanoparticles. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2013 Mar 25;3:13. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2013.00013. PMID: 23532930; PMCID: PMC3607064.
-CO, thanks for the details, but you know, in your sources they are saying nanoparticles of medications, polymers, and liposomes– NOT nanoparticles of PLASTICS.
However, one of your sources mentions “non-degradable nanospheres.”
Appears there’s currently no reason to give the benefit of the doubt to medical technology, right?
Yes, I see your point. Some polymers are classified as plastics Penelope and some ‘plastics’ can form non-biodegradable nanospheres depending on what they are to be used for in the body.
Does this make the Russian submarines an occupational hazard? Do the Russian submariners have a higher than average cancer rate? Could that disposition affect their attitudes while they sneak around being at the ready to launch their nukes anywhere in the world? Hmm.
I don’t think Russia will use nukes on any significant scale they’re too ‘dirty’ and outdated, they have a ‘cleaner’ and much more powerful armamentarium waiting in the woodwork.
Imagine how the coffee feels.
Wanted and discarded in equal measure.
Like butterflies and people.
i drink mine at all temperatures.
Your alternative update on #COVID19 for 2022-10-26. Damage to endothelial cells of heart & blood vessels. 80 dead Canadian Drs. Mandates do not apply to EUA (blog, gab, tweet).
I ate a butterfly once by accident. Am I a cannibal?
Yes
No you’re only a cannibal if you eat your own species LOL.
😆🤯
are you a butterfly?
i nearly ate a wasp that flew into my porridge.
Had a wasp sting my eyeball once. Fortunately, it was an itty-bitty ichneuman that flew into my eye. Still hurt like hell when it stung me.
Manager got stung in the mouth drinking from a can of soda. It’s about the fourth time I’ve seen it in the US in 20yrs, still looks like it hurts like hell..
Hope it wasn’t a Monarch Butterfly.
I understand the numbers of ths\is species is plummeting. As is the bumble bee population.
Not sure about that. Plenty of milkweed around. A great teaching tool with my grand kids. I never pass a patch of milkweed up when we are hiking. Mexico is making a good effort to protect their wintering grounds. Kansas University had a citizen scientist program going for tagging and monitoring monarchs a while back. Don’t know the status. They called it Monarch Watch. Incredibly popular outdoor education program. Intensive corporate farms would be a threat. Typically, ditches and farm edges are filled with the ubiquitous plant. I would guess that the monitoring program posed more risks than benefits. I know the MSM wants to exclaim a population decline that can be blamed on climate change. Fuck them. It takes several generations to make the trip south from Canada to Mexico and vice versa. A cool freak of nature that I think I appreciate as much as my grand kids.… Read more »
actually, all the effects from the “wiring” of planet earth are affecting bees & birds in a major way. arthur firstenberg explains all of this brilliantly in “the invisible rainbow,” in which he incidentally also explains the actual cause of all true influenza pandemics.
Urgh! was it a moth, adopt a family of frogs, just don’t live next door to someone from France., overwise the blighters will move out.
Does “ate” mean swallowed ? I doubt you are able to swallow a butterfly “by accident”.
If you’re a butterfly… unless I missed the reference