The haul from Washington to Boston on interstates and turnpikes is hell for vehicular density, surface conditions, and the pulsing polarity of too much and too little speed. I was resigned to the misery until the epiphany. It came while heading to Canada, and my Road to Damascus was the New Jersey Turnpike. As I sat motionless in an hours-long jam, worried I might not make it to the next exit before nightfall, the most fragile of all creatures passed by my windshield, a live-free-or-die butterfly, mocking my self-imprisonment. I vowed to follow the butterfly to a road less traveled.
Richard LeBlond is a retired biologist living in North Carolina. His essays and photographs have appeared in numerous U.S. and international journals.