Thoughts about a Spider

The spider was happily crawling across a pansy leaf before it fully registered that I had carried it by its filament, yes? off of my leg and away. Surely by the filament. I would have remembered touching the spider body, yes? And anyway, I probably would've crushed it that way, so very small as it was. It all transpired in a split second.

What a marvel, this. I have swept the tiny creature off of me and safely onto a nearby plant before even registering consciously what I was doing. It's automatic in me then, I think: preservation of living things. And that thought sets my mind going. To the boys at the Little League field some years ago, stomping out much bigger bugs than this--and with parental encouragement no less. To the Jews, that much more shocking stomping out we call the Holocaust. And to the direct line between these--tiny creature to small creature to large creature. Something is killed because it is deemed...nothing, or offensive, too different, unwelcome or wrong--or on the "wrong" side of a door or screen or national border. [That] (fill in the that) is less than; I am better. I stay and it goes. Whether consciously or not, a judgment is made. On what basis? According to what rulers or values?

I made no judgment about the spider. I simply acted, by reflex, in favor of Life.