The Butterfly And The Darkness

The darkness had consumed the whole world but it had left one small bright thing alive; a butterfly; not the most beautiful and bright of all butterflies but a little hairstreak with brown wings and yellow spots upon them.

The darkness, you see, wanted to know how long the butterfly would keep flapping before it gave up hope.

“Why bother flapping?”, the darkness asked, “You can never win. The world is gone and when I tire of you, I will snuff out your life as well. You have no hope”.

“Hope is not the point”, said the butterfly, “My being in existence has value in its self. While I still live there is gentleness and beauty and that is worth more than all the power you possess. I am like a truth that is never heard or a beauty that is never seen. It is still truth; it is still beauty and worth more in the brief moment that it exists than a whole eternity of ugliness and lies”.