Moment of Beauty

As I was walking down 5th Ave the other day, I saw a beautiful creature flit past me down the street. I was captivated, as you don't see a butterfly in Midtown Manhattan very often. I started to follow it briefly, thinking that I could at least snap a picture, and remember the moment. Unfortunately, for the tired guy, he alighted on a subway grate where several people attempted to squash out his already brief existence. I quickly squatted next to him, and as I tried to take out my camera several people bustled me for stopping in the street, one woman coming extremely close to place her foot on top of my friend, and I gave her a piece of my mind. I believe the rant contained the words ignorant, oblivious, and several other adjectives that I won't include here. I snapped this picture, and then gently reached down to lift my new friend off of the ground, at which he took off for higher ground. Now, I know that the life span of a Tiger Swallowtail is only 6-20 days at most. So the fact that he probably suffered a horrible fate after leaving me, and never got some action, is an acceptable consequence of life. What I found extremely unacceptable is, that aside from me, only two tourist noticed him. They only noticed him because I was squatting in the middle of the sidewalk, but to their credit they paused and waited until I encouraged him on his way, and I noticed that one of them was as compelled as I as at our friends predicament. So, my point to this whole story is...Watch where you're walking!! We should all slow down a bit, or at least look around at what is right in front of us instead of tuning it out.