21 August 2009

A Spider's Circular Web


Amorella here. A silk circle, this time delicately designed geometric webbing, Arachnid created without its taking high school geometry. This photograph was taken at a city park in Mason, Ohio, but it could have been taken in any similar environment where such a spider resides.

What does this have to do with the human spirit? Look at the environments humans live day to day in and see what behavior the species has in common. One of those interests is personal and familial security. Which is deeper, more imbedded in the individual as well as the family, culture or government? Orndorff, are you reading here?

Somewhat. I mean I am typing the words as they form from my fingertips dancing across the keyboard. I don’t feel I am actually reading the words; the words are more sensed from the inside out. I have read so many descriptive and expository essays over thirty-five years of teaching, as well as all those eight to fifteen page research papers. The words were gathered subconsciously as my eyes quickly rolled across title, introductory sentences growing to paragraphs and to eventual conclusions. Reading became second nature. I have what some call reading automaticity. According to a university professor or two, the automaticity works similar to the mental system of a simultaneous translator when sheorhe is actually translating from one language to another as a person speaks. Evidently the translator doesn’t necessarily consciously know what is being translated. The words go in herorhis brain and out off the tongue automatically.

People drive this way sometimes. An example would be going through a light then suddenly looking through the rear view mirror to see if the light was green. The driver doesn’t remember consciously seeing the streetlight. Another similar example is driving a manual, stick drive. Rushing through the motions of the engine’s whine and coupling this with shifting from first gear, to second, and then to third and on to fourth and so on. The sound and the motion of the hand on the stick shift become second nature. Automaticity is brain induced and it is not necessarily mindful, at least in my opinion.

Amorella, I am uncomfortable giving an opinion here. This blog is not about what I think; it is about how the human spirit within my mind (and I assume other human minds) attempts to emotionally reason the whys and wherefores in the limited and greater world of observation. That is how I see it. Human beings are not spiders but we tangle ourselves in existential and intangible webs anyway.

And, these human webs; are they circular too?

I don’t know. Human webs are a mystery to me. Some of them, particularly friendship, appear to stretch beyond the grave. Why do human beings feel the necessity to think that far ahead, unless it has to do with the emotional, the healthful, and financial security for their children, yet they think about their friends’ security also.

Nature appears to build this in all living species does it not?

I don’t know, Amorella. “All” is a pretty big word.

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