Can you imagine?!
Could this be mere coincidence?
Or, are there invisible threads connecting… everything?
On Saturday morning I sat at the patio table measuring once, twice, maybe even nine times before allowing pages in the current book project to make the cut. Such effort is slow, tedious, readers-perched-on-my-nose, every-second-worth-it work. At some point, the little arachnid pictured above came trotting across the table.
Although exercising the muscles around my fortress of focus is a persistent work in progress, this was a wonder-eliciting spider that I simply could not ignore. “Well… hello there! Yes! You are exactly right. I do need a break.”
While maintaining eye contact with me, the chunky eight-leg trailed a translucent string of web from its caboose across the table, over my keyboard, and around the phone that had just snapped its photo. After several minutes of conversation (the spider talked by blinking and smiling at me), I was called away by Henrietta’s barkhowlbarkbarkbark. When I returned, my distraction was gone.
I typed ‘chunky, fuzzy spider with a white spot on its back’ into the search bar and learned that I’d been chatting with a Phidippus Audax, a Bold Jumping Spider. I enjoyed a few solid moments of glee over this new-to-me experience and then got back to work…
The next morning when I perused snippets of news from the 1440, I came across:
Clickbait: Itsy bitsy spiders are taking over the web.
Having danced with a fuzzy Fred or Ginger the morning before, how could I not click?
In a few paragraphs, I learned that Bold Jumping Spiders have become TikTok darlings and… breeders are selling them as pets for up to $100 each? Wow.
Friendly, fearless, and harmless, Phidippus Audax are excellent ambassadors of nature.
I’m delighted that my personal introduction arrived via direct experience.
I think it’s amazing that my acquaintance and I met as equals.
I’m grateful that both of us were free to carry on our merry ways afterward — because heaven knows that I already have a pet with four legs that gives me a run for my money! 😂
Science objectifies the universe by describing it from the outside, while poetry subjectifies it by describing it from the inside, and life is the land of subjects.
~Ursula K. LeGuin