A new tele­vi­sion com­mer­cial con­trasts the fun of drink­ing Pep­si with the bore­dom of attend­ing col­lege class­es. In the class­room sequence, a tweedy pro­fes­sor drones on about “dung beetles.”

On vaca­tion recent­ly, I was walk­ing along a bog road in the hills of west­ern Ire­land. It was 8:30 a.m., the grass wet with dew, the sun burn­ing off the last morn­ing mists. I was accom­pa­nied by a dozen red admi­ral but­ter­flies, flut­ter­ing from grass tuft to grass tuft a few yards ahead, paus­ing now and then to spread their showy black, white, and flame-orange wings, soak­ing up sun­light, dry­ing out, adjust­ing their thermostats.

“I have that haunt­ing feel­ing that spring this year again per­formed all her old tricks and showed me just how life is made and what it is made of, but her hand has such sleight and she so dis­tracts the atten­tion with wav­ing green scarves and birds let loose from the loft that just when you think it is time now to watch care­ful­ly, the thing is done.”