Spiders or terrorists.........

Image via Wikipedia

Killing a spider but not a slug? Oh, you're thinking I've really gone batty now - hold on, hold on! If you were here at the MindSieve last week, you'll have seen my last and perhaps my original post on slugs - ewww! I suspect this reflection may be the last (one can hope) of the overworked discussion of small, slimy creatures (def. terrestrial gastropod mollusks/no shell) who are only interested in eating what one has freshly planted in one's garden. I mean we're on the same page with the invertebrate at the moment - as wouldn't you like to eat all the goodies now that come from your own special garden? O.k. digression.....

So I won't kill the slug but the large very black, sinister looking spider in my bathroom this a.m. was undeniably doomed when I spotted it. No, I don't know that it was a black widow and no, I didn't stop to look at it and have it look at me, I just grabbed a nearby sock, got lucky on the first swipe and sent the spider to a swirling, flushing death.....sans the sock, of course.

So what's the difference? I have some history with the spider sect (or is that insect - ahem arachnid, please) having "invaded" my territory, with the ability to inflict harm - I've experienced spider bites before and I get a huge red swelled area at bite site. Not fun! The slug, in a forest, not bothering me.....the slug in my garden or hostas.....they can inflict some damage there but they seem less offensive to me on neutral ground, i.e., outside.

But there's a greater metaphor at work here isn't there when viewing one's encounters with the other? The others we encounter in life, in the neighborhood, in the world are measurably larger than an arachnid or mollusk.....but the questions do similarly emerge. Are they friendly, will they bite (or shoot), will they set up housekeeping in a place I consider "not theirs?" And is the place really not theirs? Will they eat too much, not tend their yards, let their children run wild in the neighborhood? Do I fear them because I do know them or because I don't know them? Am I willing to get to know them or am I too busy to do that? Do I prefer to do away with them or ignore them in favor of my own superior ideas and needs? Hmmm, into the extreme, do I send others, preferably others that I do not know personally, off to war in my place just because I don't like what the others are doing to each other? Oh, I think you get the picture.......

Arachnids - familiarly called spiders when they're in our bathrooms, mollusks - familiarly called slugs when they're in our lettuce, Palestinians - familiarly called terrorists when they try to cross one of their own borders, freedom fighters when others are doing what we want them to do, and terrorists when they're not doing what we want them to do..........oh, this may be a stretch of my imagination but is my imagination so off target? I'm sure you'll let me know.



Photo from Wikipedia - File:Victorian funnelweb.jpg