How Literature Inspires Further Study

Polyphemus Moth

I am not a lover of insects.  Some of them I can admire, but mostly I avoid them as much as possible.  It matters not whether they are venomous or harmless.  I am eternally thankful that a large six-inch preying mantis fell next to me on a chair at the laundromat and NOT in my hair.  I don't think I would be living to tell this tale.  How, then, did I end up engrossed by a book on moths?   I even count this among some of my favorite non-fiction.  It all goes back to reading A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter.  In it, Elnora earns money to pay for her textbooks by collecting moths for a scientist.  Through that fictitious world, I developed an interest in learning more about them.  It turns out that Stratton-Porter was truly interested in moths and wrote a whole book about them, "Moths of the Limberlost." She made me see the exquisite beauty of moths.  Reading, goes far beyond making us literate, but can take us down other paths and open doors into another world that we might not peer into otherwise.

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