Unexpected analogy
Category rants
I just had an odd experience... one of those moments where something completely mundane and ordinary causes an internal light bulb to flicker on. Sort of a Paul Harvey, "Man and the Birds" moment. Not a religious or even particularly insightful moment, just unexpected.
I was sitting out on my back porch and noticed that the spider who has taken a fancy to the balcony above has been rather busy. And it appears to be pregnant... it's certainly larger than the last time I saw it. How can I tell? Did I measure both times and find a definitie increase in the second measurement? Nah, I just know. I can sense these things. Or even more likely, I'm just imagining it. Anyway, it's been busy. The first few times I noticed it, its web was limited to a fairly small area above a corner of the porch. Now it has extended a bit closer to the deck chairs we sit on to watch lightning bugs and listen to tree frogs. No, I didn't measure that either. I can just tell. Or I'm imagining it.
I suddenly had an urge to stand up on one of the chairs and swat it away with the book I was reading. Which was weird, because my pacifism generally extends to animals and even insects. I've never been scared of spiders, at least not the way an old friend of mine was: once upon a time, another friend of ours in high school somehow managed to tie her shoelaces to the legs of her desk without her noticing it, then tossed a rubber spider on top of the desk... she freaked, and bump-bump-bumped her desk halfway across the room in an attempt to escape. I'm not that scared of them. But they do sort of weird me out. They just look so foreign, so different from me. I once read an intriguing theory about why spiders tend to freak people out: the motion of most animals (including other humans) is so fluid in comparison, whereas spiders have a very mechanical motion, almost robotic, which intuitively looks unnatural to us.
In any case, though, it seemed odd to me that I would want to go out of my way to get rid of this spider, but then I realized that it feels like this one poses a threat to me. I just get the feeling that if it could get close enough to me, it would bite. And it looks poisonous. How do I know? I don't. I know absolutely nothing about spiders. It's probably completely harmless. But I don't know that it isn't poisonous either. I could buy spider spray and hose down the area with it "just in case".... but then that would make me poisonous, which would make me a hypocrite. Why is it okay for me to possess poison but it's not okay for the spider? Because I'm already bigger and more powerful? Because I'm a nice guy with a fairly gentle temperament, so I only use my poison on something that I think deserves it, even if I have no definitive evidence that it really poses a threat to me or to others? Or... even worse.... simply because I'm me, which automatically makes me the "good guy" in the movie in my head?
Besides, it's definitely scared of me. The one time that I did wander close enough for it to see me, it recoiled instantly. It knows I'm bigger than it is. It's got instincts, just like I do. It wants to protect itself, and probably would lash out if I threatened it. Just like almost every living creature tends to do. If I tried to kill it, it would be perfectly justified in biting me to try to defend itself, and if it suddenly landed on my head, I'd be justified in trying to swat it away to try to keep it from biting me. But it hasn't. It hasn't approached me at all. And for me to go out of my way to get rid of it just because I think it might be poisonous - because to me, it looks poisonous - would be unjust, cruel, and hypocritical. Even if I'd once been bitten by another spider that I thought looked similar, until I know that this one is trying to attack me, for me to go out of my way to remove that possibility - just in case - would be wrong. Even worse, it would make it easier for me to behave similarly in the future without remembering that it's wrong because I've done it before.
It's a weird analogy, but perhaps not entirely unfit.
I just had an odd experience... one of those moments where something completely mundane and ordinary causes an internal light bulb to flicker on. Sort of a Paul Harvey, "Man and the Birds" moment. Not a religious or even particularly insightful moment, just unexpected.
I was sitting out on my back porch and noticed that the spider who has taken a fancy to the balcony above has been rather busy. And it appears to be pregnant... it's certainly larger than the last time I saw it. How can I tell? Did I measure both times and find a definitie increase in the second measurement? Nah, I just know. I can sense these things. Or even more likely, I'm just imagining it. Anyway, it's been busy. The first few times I noticed it, its web was limited to a fairly small area above a corner of the porch. Now it has extended a bit closer to the deck chairs we sit on to watch lightning bugs and listen to tree frogs. No, I didn't measure that either. I can just tell. Or I'm imagining it.
I suddenly had an urge to stand up on one of the chairs and swat it away with the book I was reading. Which was weird, because my pacifism generally extends to animals and even insects. I've never been scared of spiders, at least not the way an old friend of mine was: once upon a time, another friend of ours in high school somehow managed to tie her shoelaces to the legs of her desk without her noticing it, then tossed a rubber spider on top of the desk... she freaked, and bump-bump-bumped her desk halfway across the room in an attempt to escape. I'm not that scared of them. But they do sort of weird me out. They just look so foreign, so different from me. I once read an intriguing theory about why spiders tend to freak people out: the motion of most animals (including other humans) is so fluid in comparison, whereas spiders have a very mechanical motion, almost robotic, which intuitively looks unnatural to us.
In any case, though, it seemed odd to me that I would want to go out of my way to get rid of this spider, but then I realized that it feels like this one poses a threat to me. I just get the feeling that if it could get close enough to me, it would bite. And it looks poisonous. How do I know? I don't. I know absolutely nothing about spiders. It's probably completely harmless. But I don't know that it isn't poisonous either. I could buy spider spray and hose down the area with it "just in case".... but then that would make me poisonous, which would make me a hypocrite. Why is it okay for me to possess poison but it's not okay for the spider? Because I'm already bigger and more powerful? Because I'm a nice guy with a fairly gentle temperament, so I only use my poison on something that I think deserves it, even if I have no definitive evidence that it really poses a threat to me or to others? Or... even worse.... simply because I'm me, which automatically makes me the "good guy" in the movie in my head?
Besides, it's definitely scared of me. The one time that I did wander close enough for it to see me, it recoiled instantly. It knows I'm bigger than it is. It's got instincts, just like I do. It wants to protect itself, and probably would lash out if I threatened it. Just like almost every living creature tends to do. If I tried to kill it, it would be perfectly justified in biting me to try to defend itself, and if it suddenly landed on my head, I'd be justified in trying to swat it away to try to keep it from biting me. But it hasn't. It hasn't approached me at all. And for me to go out of my way to get rid of it just because I think it might be poisonous - because to me, it looks poisonous - would be unjust, cruel, and hypocritical. Even if I'd once been bitten by another spider that I thought looked similar, until I know that this one is trying to attack me, for me to go out of my way to remove that possibility - just in case - would be wrong. Even worse, it would make it easier for me to behave similarly in the future without remembering that it's wrong because I've done it before.
It's a weird analogy, but perhaps not entirely unfit.
Comments
You need to learn how to de-value all life, except that which puts out, value them (or at least pretend), or the putting of the out will cease.
Reducing the value of all other things allows you to live a much more comfortable life, which would imply you value your life. So to value your life more so, you must devalue all other. And to improve the value you of all other, you aparently will devalue yours. As you have such a need to preserve this stupid spider, now you live in discomfort and under constant threat of attack, so you have in fact devalued your own life.
Besides dude, Pre-emptive strike.... don't you learn anything from current events? The safest way for you to live is to kill everything else that lives, and some things that don't. Rocks can kill you, so destroy those too, oh yeah, and I've never been a big fan of Bleach, kill that and wear dirty whites.
Posted by Steven Rodgers At 08:38:44 On 08/24/2006 | - Website - |