I’m not a big fan of spider webs (actually, I like the web
itself when it isn't stuck to my face), yet I seem to feel badly every time I disrupt
one. It seems to me that, while I am certain that the spider does not rue the
work required, it is still remarkably time consuming. I feel badly when I set
them back. Still, a spider has to eat, and by necessity, she has to spin her
web to do so. I am also fairly certain that a spider does not feel joy, even
when the web is filled with scurrying, little spiderlings (yes, that is what
they are called).
People, despite their penchant for spinning intricate webs,
do feel joy, and do rue the work they are required to do in order to survive
(my apologies to Marjorie, who does seem to enjoy her organic vegetable and
goat farm). While people are required to do a certain amount of work to ensure
their survival, they spend far more time spinning webs, and while they don’t
shit silk out of their asses, their webs are remarkably intricate. And I do
think that the webs we spin are created for the sole purpose of snaring as much
joy as can be mustered, while releasing all the ruing we persist in
simultaneously. Our webs take many forms. Mine, for instance, is spun from pure
sarcasm. It most certainly deflects most of my sadness (after all, who amuses
me more than me), but, as it is not as sticky, or as tensile, as silk, it also
tends to send a fair amount of joy caroming off into the ozone, or simply
passing right through me. But this post is not about me. It is intended to be
much more general.
The difference between spiders and people (no, it’s not the
venom thing…we share that in common), is that spiders constantly work at
creating, or rebuilding their webs, while people seem to simply allow them to
exist. Spiders renew, humans retrieve! Let me see if can expound on this a bit.
Humans have been spinning collective webs for millennia.
This has allowed us to trap the things that bind us to the past. We do seem to
have an inordinate need to feel that connection to what was, as if it creates
commonality. In this regard, it achieves the opposite effect, as it
memorializes sadness and suffering, the great human exaggerations. It is our obsession with what was, and our
failure to embrace what is, that has created the divisiveness we choose to live
with.
So what are these trappings, you ask? Pick almost any social
behavior and you will find one. Barbecues and religion are two that spring to
mind, although barbecues most definitely serve a higher purpose (and also keep
us in closer contact with spiders). But back to religion. It is our adherence
to ideas that are older than dirt that continuously deny us original thought,
and that has led to the demise, and disrespect, of human creativity. Even those
we consider the edgiest, the whooiest, are wrapped up in ancient, outdated
philosophies. Vedic scripture, Buddhism, capitalism, the American political
system, not to mention the big three, are some of the trappings of our webs…a
search backwards for answers that will only come from moving forward. Simply
put, we have lost the ability to think ahead by embracing the backwards view.
There may be something called the ‘wisdom of the ages’, but it does not exist
in those things caught in our webs. Throwing off the veil, while continuing to
embrace the myth, is not a formula for progress (no offense to Muslims…just
seemed like a good metaphor). Electing geriatric criminals does not bring us to
a new political horizon. The trappings of our webs denied us the ability to
understand that Obama was simply a younger cog in the old political machine. I
will stop railing in a moment, but not yet. The Occupy movement may indeed
offer some good ideas, but by wrapping them in old political blankets, they do
not offer the warmth of hope. We will be forever unable to create hope, until
we create new ideas that offer it. Instead, we deny our own hope in believing
that Jesus, or Buddha, or the Dalai Lama are coming back to restore us. In
truth, the only things they might offer are body lice epidemics, bathing in
rivers saturated with cow dung and human waste, or the wisdoms of a man-deity
who has lived a privileged and sheltered life while never cultivating even a
single grain of rice. I mean, where are the Mayans now?
Our spun webs are the Higgs mechanisms that lend weight to
the particles of the past. Science has shown us that new particles can spontaneously appear. I am not smart enough to fully grasp this concept, but I
am smart enough to realize that this concept is the only thing that will offer
us hope in this very moment. The spontaneous appearance of new ideas, not the
embrace of old ones.
