Spider webs are like present-day politics
Apparently, there are over 35,000 species of spiders and related arachnid types. According to my wife, anything with eight eyes and eight legs should be eradicated from the face of the earth. Nevertheless, spiders are interesting in a variety of ways. For instance, their class name, Arachnida, they say, comes from the Greek mythological tale about a young maiden named Arachne who challenged the goddess Athene to a weaving contest. When Arachne won the contest, Athene was so angry that she tore up Arachne’s tapestry, turned her into a spider, and sentenced her to spin and weave forever. Admittedly, that story is a bit dated, so let us turn our attention to a spider story a bit fresher-say … last week.
I stood on our covered deck, hands resting on the railing, and looked out across the meadow in search of our three dogs. Our front yard is a two-acre pasture so it took me a minute or two to locate them far down in the corner where two fences meet. Evidently, the dogs were investigating the scent of a groundhog or deer which had strayed into their domain.
(They take very seriously any trespassers who dare to violate their property lines.) Satisfied that the dogs were not digging new holes or engaged in mortal combat with wolf or bear, I turned my attention to things closer. As I glanced aside, I was surprised to see a large spider web anchored to the post beside me. I had not noticed it before. My left hand had been resting but an inch or so from this marvel of Arachnid engineering-a creation so magnificent that it could have been spun by Arachne herself. It had not been there the day before, I am sure, yet, overnight an industrious little character had spun that beautiful, symmetrical web which measured almost two feet across. Considering how small the spider was in comparison to its web, I would have to build a net about 200 feet in diameter to match the spider’s achievement.
Perhaps, in time, and with enough cord I could fabricate such a creation, but I would be hard pressed to do it in one night.
Everything I read tells me that spiders are predatory, nasty creatures; the mafia of the insect world, and this spider web is but one of their lethal weapons. Perhaps my wife is justified in disliking spiders. Putting that aside, sometimes spider webs are like graceful and beautiful decorations. On a foggy morning, one can see a surprising number of diamond shrouded works of art scattered throughout the lawn, between power lines, and in other unexpected places.
However, though they are beautiful, when the fog evaporates, those webs revert to invisible death traps for unsuspecting prey.
In a few days, the web on our porch gave way to stormy weather, but its memory still serves as a useful reminder. life is full of human webs we must avoid-traps we never should have spun in the first place. The number and frequency of web weaving (trap setting) that occurs in our present-day politics is mind boggling.
From October surprises to perjury traps, and from pre-election fabrications to media’s mystery sources-we have turned government into a web filled haunted house in which the well-intentioned public servant cannot work effectively for his country any more than one can walk through an old abandoned house without getting spider webs in his hair.
Similarly, society is filled with sticky webs that trap and destroy good citizens. The internet, for example, is a great web spinner. The name “web” fits well. like flies in a web, we are tangled, we are wrapped, and we are immobilized in immorality, racism, political correctness, factions, greed, permissiveness, and divisiveness-all modern webs working to destroy us and our nation. There are solutions. Democrats should stop trying to trap Republicans and vice versa. Construct. Do not destruct.
We should concentrate on doing good for our neighbor and our country. Trump trappers weaving webs to destroy our president ought to consider the words of Proverbs 26:27, “Whoso digs a pit shall fall therein.” What hurts our president, hurts us all! He fails, we fail.
DeWitt Clinton is a resident of Dunbar.