Talk about monofocus

I know next to nothing about them, other than to say that when it comes to nature, butterflies are right up there when it comes to beauty. I don't see butterflies that often - sadly, I'm more likely to come across a moth (after it's taken a nibble out of my favorite wool sweater, of course) - but when I do spot one, I'm always in awe of its fragility and brilliance. 

When I think of (or see) a butterfly, it's likely to be a monarch, big and bold, a brilliant orange. 

And seeing that butterfly always makes my day, even though it's always a random event and nothing I plan (or hunt) for.

If seeing a run-of-the-mill monarch makes my day, imagine what spotting a bog elfin meant to Bryan Pfeiffer. He's been on the hunt for one for 21 years. 

I had never heard of the bog elfin. It's tiny and a rather dull brown, and I'm sure if I'd come across one, I would have thought it was a moth. 

But for Pfeiffer, finding a bog elfin was a mission. 

The bog elfin had never been confirmed in Vermont, but Pfeiffer’s gut told him it was there. So the entomologist logged countless miles through isolated terrain swarming with mosquitos and black flies, armed with binoculars and a butterfly net and a determination his friends and colleagues marveled at. He was 44 when his search began; a heart attack and a knee replacement later, he found himself at age 65, wondering the sort of things people wonder as the years race by. “Every year I felt like my window was closing,” he said. (Source: Boston Globe)

Finding the holy grail after 21 years is personally satisfying for Pfeiffer, but it also means that the state of Vermont is charged with preserving this little guy.

“In our safeguarding little brown butterflies, like protecting speech, we show reverence not only for the popular and charismatic and profitable, but for the obscure and the vulnerable as well,” he wrote. “Vermont is now a better place for having bog elfins — up there in the spruce where they belong, overseeing the orchids and songbirds and blackflies, even aging biologists like me. Protecting little brown butterflies is good for the integrity of nature — as it is for integrity of humans.” 

I can only begin to imagine being so monofocused, having such a quest. Would that I had been as determined to pursue anything with that zeal and determination in my life. (Sigh.) At my age, is it too late to begin a 21 year quest? And what would that quest be? The Great American Novel? The not-so-great-self-published-American novel? (The latter would sure be more achievable, and probably wouldn't take 21 years which I may or may not have. Can I be monofocused for 21 months? I suspect I have at least that much more time.)

Bryan Pfeiffer, out there in the Vermont bogs, fighting off mosquitoes and black flies, armed only with binoculars, camera, and butterfly net, looking for a tiny, obscure little brown butterfly is nothing if not an inspiration. To me, at least.

Onward!