The Butterfly-Neil Bartram

[00:00.053]Alvin  [00:00.957]A neat career.  [00:02.492]A story about thomas.  [00:06.010]Thomas  [00:06.339]Okay.  [00:09.035]My college application required a sample of my writing, a short story, and i had nothing.  [00:14.903]I'd been writing things down for years but nothing resembled an actual story.  [00:18.909]So, in a panic i went to find alvin at the store to tell me what to do.  [00:22.954]Alvin  [00:23.240]There's gotta be thousands of stories in that head of yours, tom.  [00:25.579]Just pick one and write it down.  [00:28.086]Thomas  [00:28.455]So i picked one and wrote it down. Three hundred and fifty words amounting to,  [00:33.381]I suspected, a pile of crap. So, i decided to read it to alvin and let him decide if it was [00:39.418]Any good at all.  [00:40.498](thomas reads.)  [00:41.042]The butterfly. By thomas weaver.  [00:44.342]Alvin  [00:44.668]The butterfly’  [00:45.728]Thomas  [00:45.993]Yeah.  [00:47.876]In a far off land  [00:49.562]There lived a beautiful butterfly,  [00:54.376]In a kingdom full of blossom covered trees  [01:00.322]And winding through this paradise  [01:03.832]A river danced along  [01:06.600]And played with the constant summer breeze.  [01:11.974](thomas hesitates, losing confidence.)  [01:12.897]Alvin  [01:13.600]Keep going.  [01:14.839]Thomas  [01:15.596]The butterfly  [01:18.260]Found a tiny branch at the riverside  [01:22.746]And watched the water rushing who knows where.  [01:28.541]Carefully he sheltered  [01:30.955]From the power of the breeze  [01:33.720]For surely it could toss him through the air.  [01:39.068]‘i’m a butterfly,’  [01:40.959]He said,  [01:42.913]‘trivial and small  [01:45.558]And in the greater scheme of things  [01:48.719]I don’t mean much at all,  [01:51.403]So i’ll flap my wings to stretch myself  [01:54.549]And just enjoy the view.  [01:58.345]I’m a butterfly, what more can i do’’  [02:05.379] [02:07.614]One afternoon the butterfly asked the river,  [02:12.896]"madam, what makes you hurry so’  [02:17.705]What splendid destination  [02:20.156]Are you rippling toward’  [02:23.046]Where, oh where do you go’"  [02:27.918]The river said, ‘i’m headed for the ocean,  [02:33.183]And the summer breeze inspires me to race.  [02:38.209]My friend, you’d love the ocean.  [02:40.864]It’s remarkable to see.  [02:43.725]Won’t you join our friendly chase’’  [02:48.270]‘i’m a butterfly,’  [02:50.249]He said,  [02:51.801]‘trivial and small  [02:54.281]And in the greater scheme of things  [02:57.313]I don’t mean much at all,  [02:59.907]So i flap my wings to stretch myself  [03:02.823]And just enjoy the view.  [03:05.004]I’m a butterfly, what more can i do’’  [03:10.349] [03:11.067]So the butterfly, he dreamed of the ocean.  [03:16.208]He longed to flutter high above the seas,  [03:20.837]But there are dangers in the sky  [03:24.204]For a tiny butterfly.  [03:26.626]So from his branch  [03:27.817]He asked a question of the breeze.  [03:31.769]"what makes you chase the river  [03:34.182]T’ward the ocean’"  [03:36.969]Then the breeze told him a most amazing thing.  [03:42.338]‘i’m simply made up of the currents in the air  [03:47.870]That start from the movement of your wing,  [03:52.847]Your tiny wing.’  [03:56.431]‘you’re a butterfly my friend,  [04:01.239]Powerful and strong  [04:03.479]And i'm grateful for the way  [04:05.769]You’ve always hurried me along.  [04:09.295]When you flap your wings to stretch yourself  [04:12.071]It might seem small to you  [04:15.624]But you change the world  [04:20.245]With everything you do.’  [04:24.880] [04:30.163]So he stretched his wings  [04:32.885]And took off from the safety of his tree  [04:40.145]And the butterfly finally saw the sea. [04:56.535]