Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Spiders

I've always thought that spiders were beautiful, fascinating creatures. I don't want to embrace them as my close friends, of course, or even keep them as pets. But I have, over the years, seen many varieties of spiders, watched them weave their incredibly complicated webs and move from place to place with such speed and grace.

How is it possible to fear a creature portrayed as so intelligent and kind and generous as Charlotte of "Charlotte's Web" fame? She did, after all, save Wilbur time and again from a violent and untimely death! She was a loving mother who carefully prepared and provided for her young. She was loved and lamented when she died.

And what about the super powers made possible by a spider to a man in "Spider man." Super heroes are an accepted part of each child's life and absolutely essential, in their eyes, to the safety of the world! And to think that a spider made it all happen...

Many people I know are afraid of spiders and, I suppose, rightfully so in some cases. Spiders can be really ugly and are often found suddenly in unexpected places, startling even those people not generally freaked out by them. Spiders can be dangerous. Some carry venom poisonous to our human bodies. A bite by some spiders can bring pain and suffering, even disfigurement--not a pleasant thought, for sure.

And that brings me to the reason why I was thinking about spiders today. I woke up with what is obviously a set of spider bites on my back.

EEEWWW! ICKY! ITCHY! OUWEEEE!

While I can admire spiders in theory, the thought that there was one in my bed, crawling over me in the night even under my clothes, does creep me out a bit. Time to shake out the bedding and fumigate the house. Biting me is no way to increase my fascination and admiration for those arachnids in the world. It is a love only to be felt from afar!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree. When I find a spider in the house, if I can reach it I will take it outside instead of killing it. (If it's up high, though, it's dead: I don't need thousand of babies making tons more webs!) This morning, though, I took hold of a spider's strand to take it outside, and it started crawling up the strand before I could get it out the door! It was promptly and vigorously shaken onto the floor. I hope it got smushed! :)

chumly said...

Lets just say I am not a spider lover either and leave it like that.

Solid Rock or Sinking Sand said...

I just step on them...They are not welcome in my house. I really enjoyed reading your blog. I would like to invite you to come over to my blog and check it out. God's blessings. Lloyd

ramlakmi said...

I am afraid of spiders.

MoonRose said...

Wow, spider bites all over you? Even i'd be creeped out by that, you don't have to worry about I like spiders and used to wake up with spider bites all over me as well, I once read a scary story of a spider biting a girl on the face while she was asleep, then later she was looking in the mirror and the bite exploded open and millions of baby spiders came crawling out. It was creepy and it was all i could think about for a long time, but it was just a story. Anyway, i just wanted to tell you how much i liked your post, but i was just looking at other peoples blogs to copare them to mine.