This is one Mean Old Lady!

This is one Mean Old Lady!
Self-portrait: 'Quilter on Fire'

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Close Encounter

So, I've dropped my MIL at the door of the medical clinic and gone to park my vehicle in the lot; just as I grab my sweater (waiting rooms in the South are refrigerated in the summer months) and purse, a small gray butterfly makes a beeline out of the back seat.....and alights on my bare upper arm. This was a small, tastefully-hued butterfly with red racing stripes and striking small touches of black and white. Enchanted, I kept walking toward the building and gazing at my hitchhiker.

An elderly couple were headed in the opposite direction, and in the spirit of 'sharing the moment,' I exclaimed, "Look at this little butterfly! Isn't it wonderful?" The woman said, "Shall I get rid of it for you?" and even while I cried, "NO!" she punted the poor butterfly off my arm with an enameled trigger-finger. I was so horrified that I blurted, "That was mean!"

And it was, too. The butterfly was flying when last seen, but no thanks to the lady's attempted murder/assault. I know I'm probably being silly, but honestly, it upset me all the rest of the day. Who would do that? How can someone so completely misunderstand, and miss, an offer to share one of life's delights?

Feeling crushed.

4 comments:

  1. Yeah, I don't get these bug phobic people. They don't discriminate at all between nasty bugs (like mosquitoes) and beneficial insects (like most other bugs). How do they think their fruit trees get pollinated? How do they think birds stay alive? They need some remedial biology classes.

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  2. A real bug phobe wouldn't have come anywhere near you. She was just mean. My gentle, animal-loving vegetarian little daughter runs screaming from bugs and wants me to kill them (I won't).

    I love the "enameled trigger-finger" - great line.

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  3. I honestly felt silly that I was so upset, but it was just such a shock! It's not like I haven't experienced other such occasions in life-- the person you're talking to totally absent and unaware of your mood, message, and meaning.....
    I was just less-protected that day, somehow. Less insulated from disappointment and disillusionment.

    At least the butterfly survived!

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  4. So was that the eponymous "mean old lady," then?

    ReplyDelete


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