The most interesting thing to me about butterflies is this: they use their feet to taste.

A butterfly has taste receptors on its feet, which allow it to land on something and know if it is worth eating (10 Fascinating Facts).

The actual consumpion is done through the probiscus, a long tongue that functions like a straw. They use it to drink nectar from flowers (Worldstrides). With the feet buds, they look for sugar, and the with the tongue straw, they drink it (Nature Museum).

It’s a scientific marvel.

And it is also poetically complicated.

Because it means that on those rare and precious occasions on which a butterfly has landed on me, it was probably just hungry (10 Fascinating Facts).

I find butterflies beautiful in so many ways: their colors, their slender shape, their graceful flight, and poised landings.

And all they are finding in me is a bad meal.

The good news is butterflies don’t weigh much.

The bad news is there are people who use the same technique: they feel you out by stepping on you. And if they find you worth consuming, they walk all over you, while sucking the life out of you.

Sometimes we attach cosmic significance to a person’s arrival in our life, when in fact they are just looking to meet a need. We are thinking that the universe has brought them to our door. And they are thinking they want a taste. Or a diversion. Or a local address.

Here’s the thing. If we believe in Divine orchestration of events (I do), we could say that God, in his infinite wisdom, has allowed them to come to us.

The question is to accomplish what?

Some people come into our lives to bless us.

Some come to teach us not leave our doors unlocked.

I have received many lessons from the people that have crossed my path.

And one of those lessons is that a person can be beautiful, charismatic, gifted, and utterly toxic.

In the Words of Ricardo Montalban in The Naked Gun, The ideal assassin is one who doesn’t know they’re an assassin. He says this before pressing a transmitter that hypnotizes his secretary by sending a signal to her wristwatch, causing her to pull an unloaded gun and fire it repeatedly at his horrified guest.

Some of the most dangerous people we meet have no idea the harm they do.

The world is full of geniuses who poison every group they join.

Users and abusers abound.

And that doesn’t mean they’re evil.

It may mean that we can’t handle their presence in our lives.

It may mean that when a door closes, we shouldn’t necessarily be running to find a window.

It also means its good for us to know our weaknesses.

A person adept in playing on your frustrations, insecurities, and resources, stir your anger, flatter you with praise, isolate you from your friends, and take your money.

They can persuade you to sacrifice for false causes that only benefit them.

We need to be able to look past the appearance of a man, a moment, or a movement, and see its spirit.

We need to learn what a person is doing when they approach us.

Because what looks like the beginning of a beautiful relationship may just be the prelude to getting devoured.

Sometimes it’s best not to be too tasty.

(Photo Credit: Tinthia Clemant)

Works Cited

“10 Fascinating Facts about Butterflies.” Suburban, 9 July 2021, https://www.suburbanexterminat....

“Butterfly.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/ani....

Museum, Nature. “What Do Butterflies Eat?” Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, 8 June 2021, https://naturemuseum.org/2021/....

Worldstrides.com, https://worldstrides.com/blog/....