Butterfly Speaks To Caterpillar

Butterfly and Caterpillar sit together. They reminisce about old times, the time before Butterfly's change.

Caterpillar avoids discussing the change. He doesn't wish to embarrass his friend. Their conversation drifts hither and yon with many detours and much laughter.

Then Butterfly says, "I love flying. The wind beneath my wings as I soar from flower to flower. And the nectar, sweet bliss I never knew before."

Caterpillar rolls his eyes. Caterpillar sighs. "You and your crazy talk. Flying and nectar. Words without meaning. Your imagination runs away with you. Clip your wings and rejoin your friends."

I saw a post on Facebook this morning that posed this question: "Ever done some deep research and realize if you talk about it people will think you are crazy?"

This phenomenon is what my primary instructor, Guru Ken, refers to as "butterfly language," and that's what inspired the short story at the start of this post.

At certain points in your development as a martial artist, or in any endeavor, you have epiphanies, and they change you. They change the way you perceive things. Your entire understanding shifts to a new level. If you try to discuss it with people who haven't put in their dirt time, people who aren't at a similar place or beyond in their own development, they can't understand you. Like Caterpillar, they have no point of reference.

At best, they get the idea at an intellectual level. Often, though, they return a blank stare. Sometimes they think you're crazy.

This type of situation presents itself in countless ways over years of martial arts training. Often, your instructor tells you something, or shows you something, over and over, but you don't get it. At first, you can't even wrap your mind around it. Then you get it intellectually. Then, one day, usually during a tangential discussion, or when another instructor says/shows the same thing, BLAM! the connection happens, the circuit completes, and you grok the thing. You look at your fellow students and realize they haven't yet arrived. You try to explain it to them. It's so simple, how could anyone have missed it. Now you get the blank looks, and your instructor smiles and nods.

---

The Wandering Guru