a thought

a white butterfly with delicate black patterning flits busily around the lavender bush. i sit and watch, at first just enjoying the spectacle, but then beginning to ponder. i learned about silkworms in my son’s preschool class-how, once they transform into moths they have only days to find a partner and lay eggs before they die. it strikes me what a challenge that is – to grow wings, learn how to use them, and then (overcoming weather and predators and geography and the need to find food) still fulfilling your instinctive urge to reproduce. imagine a computer game based on that life story (perhaps without the sex bit). you are a caterpillar – operating eight pairs of legs – and you must achieve certain goals and eventually build a chrysalis in a safe place. and then (assuming you don’t get wiped out in stasis) on emerging you have a time limit. now it’s only 3 pairs of legs and two wings you need to successfully manipulate. you must gain control of this unwieldy set and have more challenges laid out for you in the big scary world.

wouldn’t that be a cool computer game? P suggests that the controls change every time you play it, just to make repetition more viable.

if you meet all the challenges successfully, in the next level you come back as a frog egg.