Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Baby Spiders, or, the universe was created in that first moment that I opened my eyes...

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.

Well, it’s my birthday, and I will celebrate it as soon as I finish scratching this spider bite.