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SPIDER-FLY DILEMMA

AUGUST 01, 2016

VENKATESH GOVINDARAJAN (http://theintegrativepost.com/post.php?id=61#venk)

Summertime in Trondheim, Norway, where I lived, for a few years, is as lively as winter is

dreary. In winter, the trees are bare, birds migrate to the south, and insects retire

somewhere sub-terra to live out the cold. Come April, and life returns — from the lowest

forms to the highest. Quite like evolution of life on Earth being played out in a span of a

few weeks.

The 䄔耀owers are back, beginning with the ubiquitous yellow dandelion. Before long, there

are shades of red and blue all over the city; and, seagulls, magpies, ducks, crows, pigeons

and squirrels all resurface, or 䄔耀y in as the case maybe, to make the most of the

abundance associated with summertime. You also witness most members of

the insect kingdom — creeping and crawling about and basking in the

sunshine, and unwittingly falling prey to the winged ones. This story is about

two such creatures.

FLY TRAPPED

As I stood, one afternoon, sipping coffee and gazing out into the lawn, I espied a 䄔耀y

trapped in a spider-web struggling to break loose and save its life. The spider was not to

be seen. Perhaps, the eight-legged sculptor of the magni�cent structure was somewhere

far away — a few centimetres, perhaps — snoozing or expanding its kingdom.

I would be depriving the spider of a well-deserved meal if I helped the 䄔耀y to escape. I

would also be challenging an age-old, almost-sacred law of the jungle. Would it really be

considered noble to set a 䄔耀y free from a spider’s clutch? This would also apply to setting a

deer free from a lion’s clasp.

Man swats 䄔耀ies and brings down painstakingly-woven cobwebs mercilessly — two

measures taken to sustain good health and cleanliness. I was facing a moral dilemma; yet,

I am neither anti-spider nor pro-䄔耀y. The spider here was the mightier of the two. And, I

always like helping the underdog.

FLY FREED

The 䄔耀y, I thought, may get a new lease of life today, but it may �nd itself trapped in another

web tomorrow… Outside of the window of a person who would neither have the time nor

inclination to notice, or if s/he did, would support the law of the jungle and shore up the

spider’s right to capture, kill, and consume. After a �ve-minute long reasoning and turning

things over and over in my mind, I decided to set the 䄔耀y free.

A few days later, I spotted a small spider scurrying along the 䄔耀oor in a crowded shopping

centre. I will not spin a web of my own here and say that it was the same creature I had

deprived of a meal — by freeing the 䄔耀y it had trapped. This would be blatant falsehood.

However, talking of underdogs, the eight-legged creature was the underdog, at the mercy

of human beings, one of whom would certainly crush it to doom. I pulled out a piece of

paper from the recycling bin. I lifted the spider with it and placed it on the trunk of a tree

just outside of the shopping complex. It scurried up and was soon safe.

I went through a thought process. I may have crushed several insects unwittingly below

my feet — well, walking maybe a great exercise and highly eco-friendly. But, then, one

would be directly responsible for the extermination of numerous specimens from the

insect kingdom, during a harmless, yet healthy, stroll.

All the same, there is, I felt, really nothing one can be truly proud of in one’s lifetime. Go

�gure.

 

EDITOR’S NOTEPAD

THE WEB OF SERENITY (post.php?id=128)

August 01, 2016

( http://www.townsendletter.com/June2016/June2016.html )

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