Tribe

woman with MalachiteLessons & Reflections from the National Butterfly Center

In case you didn’t know, I refer to y’all as “our tribe.”  I mean this with the deepest respect and appreciation. You are the family that has given birth to this place, and continues to sustain it.  Your customs and values guide us, and we share a language that sounds utterly foreign to non-members.

My initiation into this tribe has been exciting and educational. It has opened my eyes to beauty I took for granted before belonging. I look to my elders and more experienced brothers and sisters for assistance in identifying and understanding the totems around which our tribe revolves; and like any new initiate, I am at once anxious to broadcast what I have seen and learned, and eager to keep it to myself—to hold it close, like a secret that sets me apart.

Tribe is defined as “family,” but also as “a small group of people who share obscure knowledge.” I like the idea that we are family. I see many of you more often than I see my biological family (and I like many of you more than some of them, too).  I enjoy our conversations, and love your passion for butterflies and this project. I wish our group were not so small, though.  You can keep the truly obscure knowledge, like the scientific names of species, and I mean that most sincerely: Our “priests” and shawomen should guard this, for it has value. However, our language and ritual activities should be simple enough for everyone to understand, and open to all. This is my goal for our tribe—and I have faced some resistance. 

I know history teaches us that many tribes have met disaster, some have even disappeared, as the result of interaction with strangers. I know some of our members fear this and want to protect our tribe by exclusion. It seems they aim to preserve communion with the pristine creatures we adore for initiates only. I wish this were not the case, because history also demonstrates the resiliency of tribes, especially those that rally.

We must become evangelists for butterflies, if we want to see them succeed. The survival of species, as well as our tribe, depend on it.  Together, we must proclaim and embrace our mission of Growing Connections with everyone, young or old, who will listen and enlist them to help us expand and increase support for our efforts, lest they be in vain.

As school children gather at the flagpole, and people pour into the streets for Pope Francis, I can’t help but look forward to our annual butterfly festival, when many members of our tribe will make their pilgrimage here. It leads me to fantasize about great gatherings of people celebrating and acting on behalf of butterflies all year ‘round. This is what must happen to advance our cause. We must become deliberately inclusive, obviously enthusiastic and driven to embrace everyone we encounter, for the triumph of our tribe and the love of butterflies!

 
 

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Inside the National Butterfly Center

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Open 7 Days a Week 
8:00 - 5:00
364 Days / Year

Closed Easter Sunday

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National Butterfly Center
3333 Butterfly Park Drive
Mission, TX 78572
956-583-5400
GPS Coordinates:
26.180243 -98.364973

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