Butterfly Release

The sign said "Annual Butterfly Release" and Ada and I thought that sounded like a fun thing to watch. Little did we know it was actually put on by a funeral home, and the actual butterfly release was preceded by some veiled advertising for said funeral home, the reading of the names of many hundred deceased people, and some music (a bit painfully) performed by a local country artist. As you might imagine, it was not quite what we had planned for. But we were stuck in this room with no good way out, and Ada really wanted to see the butterflies released. Finally (and mercifully) the singing and the reading of the names ended and even though you were supposed to "reserve" a butterfly by paying more money than I would pay for a butterfly, a kind woman gave Ada one of the extras. 

After some more philosophizing about butterflies and life and death and freedom (yes, I was as confused as you are), we finally got to release the poor things from their paper envelopes. Ada's wasn't so sure it wanted to fly away  and the butterfly next to us had a broken leg (thus dashing the attempt the speeches made to inspire us to fly free), but it was kind of cool to see all the monarchs take flight...unless you thought too much about where we were releasing them--next to a busy road, downtown, without a whole lot of hope for a promising future of flying free, which would actually make you think of death, which might have been the whole goal of the funeral home in the first place. Well played local funeral home. Well played. 

Next year we won't be so easily fooled.