Let Amanda Be Your Pinecone

Happy Hunting (for SEJNES)!

September 12, 2013. "Another Roadside Attraction" by Tom Robbins Part II @ Nile’s House

Quotes from Helping Friendly Book One

“Along their migratory routes, monarch butterflies stay nights in certain trees. The “butterfly trees,” as they are called, are carefully chosen – although the criteria exercised in their selection are not known. Species is unimportant, obviously, for at one stopover the roosting tree may be a eucalyptus, at another a cedar or an elm. But, and this is what is interesting, they are always the same trees. Year after year, whether moving south or returning north, monarchs will paper with their myriad wings at twilight a single tree that has served as a monarch motel a thousand times before.

Memory? If so, it is genetic. For you see, the butterflies who journey south are not the ones who come back. Monarchs lay their eggs in sunny climes. Then they die. The hordes who flutter northward in spring are a succeeding generation. Yet, without hesitation, they roost in the same trees as did their ancestors.

Scientists have examined butterfly trees and found them chemically and physically identical to the trees surrounding them. Yet no other tree will do. Investigators have camouflaged a tree’s color, altered its scent. The monarchs were not fooled. Another of nature’s mysterious constants. A butterfly always knows when it is there.”

― Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction

“The only authority I respect is the one that causes butterflies to fly south in fall and north in springtime.”

― Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction

“The quality of a man’s life depends upon the rhythmic structure he is able to impose upon the input and output of energy. Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. Einstein understood what Thoreau meant when he spoke of men hearing “different drummers.” Thoreau did not say saxophonists or harpsichordists or kazoo players, mind you, but drummers. The drummer deals almost exclusively with rhythm, therefore he is an architect of energy. Art is not eternal. Only energy is eternal. The drum is to infinity what the butterfly is to zero.”

― Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction

'That summer, Amanda's big project was the establishment of a Butterfly Conservatory. Since many moths have a very short life-span, there was a big turnover among the inhabitants of her institution.

Down by the waterfall, Amanda pitched her tent - it was made of willow sticks and the wool of black goats. Having filled the tent with her largest and softest paisley cushions, Amanda stripped down to her beads and panties and fell into a trance. "I shall determine how to prolong the lives of butterflies," she had previously announced.

However, an hour later when she awoke, she smiled mysteriously. "The life-span of the butterfly is precisely the right length," she said.”

– Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction

A lot has changed since we first started our Quest for the Secrets to Eternal Joy and Never Ending Splendor. For example, these images were created by putting the above quote directly into Midjourney AI and seeing what it came up with. There was no public artificial intelligence on august 14th, 2013. ai feels dangerously close to what having all the inherent knowledge in the universe in one place might look like. things are moving fast folks. and That’s not really what I imagine Amanda looks LIKE, but it’s fascinating.

“It’s a cold, clear morning; the sun has come over the canyon wall, but you’re still dozing around, when something hits the tent. Open the flap and the sun’s in your face; the world is ready. Let Amanda be your pinecone.”

– Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction