Hmmm, does that spider on the wall move around during the day and return to the exact same spot? Or is that one hunting spot so productive it simply never moves?
I’m not a big fan of spiders. Quite frankly, they creep me out and I keep my distance from them. But this particular spider has captured my interest. Each morning this week, when I descend to the parking garage in my morning routine, I see it poised on the wall beside the door.
It intrigues me that it’s always in the same place. Assuming that it doesn’t move, it displays remarkable patience. I don’t think I could stand glued to the same spot for more than a few minutes before my patience caved in.
But it occurs to me that my frame of reference is a bit skewed. Human beings have comparatively long life spans. We measure our lives in years and decades. Not so for insects. Some butterflies, for instance, live only a few weeks.
I googled “spider life span” and learned that spiders generally live a year or so. A relatively long life span in the insect world but still very short by comparison with us. When you measure your life in weeks rather than decades, there is probably not much payback in become a world explorer.
There is also the question of size. That spider is about the size of my thumb print. So let’s assume that spider in fact crawls down the wall to the floor and back to his prize hunting spot a few times during the day. That’s at least the equivalent of me driving to work and back. The spider, of course, has to provide his own horsepower.
The spider is also dependant on his web to survive. It’s how he hunts and captures food. Back to the “web” I went for spider facts. Spider webs take up to an hour to weave. They often have to be repaired or re-spun every day. Once prey is caught in the web, it can take a half hour for the spider to wrap the prey in silk and subdue it.
Under those circumstances, packing his tiny suitcase and going for a vacation probably isn’t terribly practical for a spider.
I’m beginning to see a pattern here. The spider doesn’t have as many choices as I do. In fact, he has little choice at all. Most of his short life is spent focused on the basic requirements of survival – which would include avoiding getting squashed by my size nines as I grimace at the sight of him.
So maybe that spider hanging out by the door is a metaphor for the luxury of choice. I’m fortunate to have many choices and the freedom to pursue them. There are many people, some quite possibly in this very building, who are caught in the spider web of circumstance. It is all they can manage just to get by from day to day.
The morale: Let’s count our blessings for the choices we have and stop taking them for granted. For there but for the grace of God go we.
Closing thought. I find myself wondering if that spider recognizes me each morning and thinks: “I wonder how big a web it would take to catch that one. I could feed on him for weeks!”
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.
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21 responses so far ↓
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