As I drove to Jax’s house last night to meet Bungie, her newest little creature, the old Jim Stafford song Spiders ‘n Snakes played around inside my head.
Bungie is a female Regal Jumping Spider and while gorgeous in my eyes, is not for everyone.
It was a miserable grey rainy late-afternoon and so my excuse for not getting really great pics was already established before I even left my driveway.
Add to that fact, that Bungie was not prepared to sit still for me but wanted to explore her surrounds. So, trying to get good pics of a small moving target in imperfect light, meant that my efforts were most definitely handicapped.
Perhaps if I had picked a different lens and used zoom from a distance, they would have been more in focus, but at the end of the day, they are what they are. My own performance was definitely questionable but I hope you enjoy them anyway.
They are at the end of the blog but beware arachnophobes …. these images might not be for you!
It was a real thrill to meet her and she jumped several times, so I can see where she gets her name from. At one stage I had the pleasure of her walking up along my arm, wrestling with each hair as she moved from wrist to elbow.
Afterwards, Jax brought me around the back to show me the six black racer eggs that she is waiting to hatch. These are really fast snakes and I love watching them as they speed without effort across my yard occasionally.
I’ve even had the pleasure of a couple coming into my office through the open door and the joys of removing them before they or the cats got injured.
But these babies aren’t born yet, so I hope to return for some pics when they are hatching. Fingers crossed.
As I drove home, I smiled at how excited I was and yet how horrified Inna, Carrie, and Morgan were when I told them where I was going.
I only told three people and all three gave identical ewwwww type responses.
So, Jim Stafford’s line “I don’t like spiders ‘n snakes” kept repeating and left me musing over “why”?
Why is it that so many people have developed phobias or distaste, or even disgust, for certain types of creatures, while the ewws turn to oohs when a puppy enters the room?
That we so willingly vilify certain creatures is a sad reflection on our appreciation of the natural world.
Much of this comes from religious preachings … where the temptation and sin is represented by the snake in the bible, or the demons are banished into the unclean pigs, or the devil himself is portrayed as a goat type figure.
Other creatures are maligned in books and movies, such as the shark in Jaws, the bats as vampires, and jackals, well as jackals.
We assign hero status to dogs, wisdom to owls, and strength to lions.
All for what purpose?
Why do we demonize some and glorify others?
There seems to be a flawed logic among humans to perpetually want to place creatures into boxes. Particularly good and bad boxes.
We love to categorize. It keep things neatly organized in our little brains.
But it also allows us to discriminate.
It creates an us and them, black and white, type world, where we revere the good/white and mistreat the bad/black.
When it comes to discriminating between humans, people follow patterns of belief that are handed down from generation to generation. And frankly, I don’t ever see it changing. In most cases though, humans that are discriminated against will eventually rebel and their voices will be heard (such as Black Lives Matter).
But animals don’t have a voice. They will never be able to rebel to where they are witnessed as equal creatures on this planet.
So, we will continue to step on, shoot, abuse, deride …. whatever creature fits into our “bad” box.
There are so many examples of wanton cruelty by humans to animals, that I don’t even need to mention them here. We have all witnessed them.
And it saddens me greatly.
If our own evolution brought us to a stage where our feeling of superiority allows us to mistreat so-called lesser creatures, then that is not evolution in my opinion. But devolution.
So, we can be as proud as we want about how intelligent we are, how dominant we are, and how righteous we are.
But the truth is our effect on the planet and the creatures around us tells an entirely different story. Parasite might be a better word.
… just a thought.
