A Spider in the Atrium
I work on the
second floor of a two-story,
shared office building. In the large,
circular common area, the floor is opened
in the middle to reveal the first floor where a little
atrium
has been built. The atrium has several plants, a small fountain,
which is a little
waterfall that runs over rocks, and even a couple of
trees that reach above the plane of the second floor. The walkway
around the circular opening to the floor below has plants growing along
the edge. With the
skylight overhead, it is actually very
peaceful and
serene.
Today, while walking through the common area, I noticed something new;
a
spider had built
a new web. The web was
near the ceiling, next to the skylight, over the opening to the lower
floor. What struck me about this was that the bottom support of
the web extends to the
top of the trees, a
distance of somewhere around at least
twelve feet or so.
How did the
spider get all the way to that
spot? It must have climbed along the edges, over the floor, up
the wall and across the ceiling. Then, after what must have been
a
considerable journey, it dares to lower itself
such an immense distance to
anchor its
web. What if the line snapped? The whole journey would
have to begin again, assuming the spider
survived the fall. How did it get to the
tree? The
web isn't directly over the
tree, but instead at an
angle; the
spider somehow had to swing over at least
three to four feet to reach it.
What made the spider decide that that was
a good
location for its web? The spot is so high and the construction
of its web required such a long anchor that it is surprising, with all
the effort and possibility of things going
wrong, that it was even
attempted. At first glance, the task seems
overwhelming and
an
impossibility. And yet, there it is, glistening in the overcast
sunlight from the skylight above, as a
testament to the
perseverance of the spider and perhaps all
spider-kind.
Was the
spider just not smart enough to realize
how much effort it would be? Or, perhaps it simply
wasn't burdened by a
racing mind, constantly doubting and questioning its
efforts. The spider has to eat, and to eat a web is needed, and
therefore it just
accomplished its task
without even realizing the task was complicated,
only that it was necessary.
Oh, to be
like that spider.