In the wings

Abstract

As a professor of the humanities at Rice University, and as an Artist In Residence in the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, I have had the opportunity to witness the many dynamic qualities of butterflies. These remarkable beings appear at once as figures of strength and delicacy, freedom and interconnectedness, endurance and fragility. Inhabiting the terrestrial and the aerial domains simultaneously, butterflies are closely interwoven with their natural and social environments, just as they remain distinctive presences within them. In this commentary, I present several vivid case studies in which butterflies appear in artworks produced by individuals at the very end of life. These moving words and images exemplify the ways in which butterflies embody key themes within aesthetics, spirituality, and the medical humanities. Throughout the stories butterflies appear as figures of transience and endurance that cross multiple boundaries within and beyond the end of life. These materials thus offer an innovative perspective that complements the views of the scientific community, while contributing to a larger case for the environmental importance and cultural value of the interconnected lives of human beings and butterflies.