Why do you spin?
WHY DO YOU SPIN?
“Why... it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!” Lion roared in his brash way.
“A weaving to rival a thousand others,” Elephant agreed sagely.
Spider puffed out his chest with pride. His web was indeed very beautiful. He’d spun it in such a way to catch the shimmers of light peeking over the horizon, and it glistened in the many-hued dawn. Drops of dew enhanced its radiance, reflecting a myriad of rainbows where the light sparkled through them.
Word spread like wildfire. Before long, Lion and Elephant were joined in their admiration by a whole host of animals who had heard of Spider’s marvellous web.
“Like liquid rays of sunshine!” squeaked Mouse.
The other animals chattered excitedly. How would Spider outdo his masterpiece? Spider felt a knot of anxiety form in his stomach. Outdo it? He hadn’t intended to create a masterpiece in the first place! It had just... happened. How could he outdo himself?
Mouse clapped him on the back. “I’m sure whatever you come up with will be spectacular!”
Spider managed to mumble something that sounded like agreement, and the animals began to wander away, for even such an undeniably wonderful web could not keep them from their routines. Only white-whiskered Fox, wrinkled and wizened by many seasons past, remained.
Spider watched them go with a sinking feeling. What to do next?
“Wise Fox!” He wailed. “What shall I do?”
Fox smiled toothily at him, “Why do you spin?”
Of course the Fox’s answer would not be straightforward! Frustrated, Spider crawled away to think, and soon he had the solution. The beauty of his web was the way it caught the sun’s rays and set them to sparkling. Lighting was everything! He scuttled through the forest searching for the best place to situate his web. Before long, he came upon a beautiful open clearing, filled with light. The perfect place! Spider set about constructing his web, flinging himself from tree to tree, making sure the strands of the web were exposed to sunshine. It was by far the largest web he’d ever created. He began to feel the first gnawing of uncertainty, but continued to spin. Finally, his beautiful web was finished. It shone in the sunlight quite prettily, and Spider felt very proud of himself, but before he had time to congratulate himself, a brisk wind rose up and shook the trees hither and thither, and the web promptly fell to pieces.
Spider could have cried from frustration! All that work, and nothing to show for it! What would the other animals say when they saw this dismal effort? They would jeer, and say that he was a fraud.
Spider felt like a fraud.
“But I will not give up!” he yelled at the traitorous trees. Thus determined, he trekked back through the forest to consult wise Fox once more.
“Wise Fox!” he entreated. “How can I spin a web of greater beauty than my last?”
Fox’s reply was the same as before. “Why do you spin?”
Thoroughly annoyed, Spider left wily Fox and continued his trek through to the forest to find the best site for his web. He had resolved that an open space was not the best place for a web, and so the next site he chose was quite small and enclosed, a small sapling tree surrounded by towering giants of the forest. Spider set to work, flinging gossamer threads this way and that, adjusting the design with an artist’s eye, a perfectionist in pursuit of absolute beauty. When he thought the web could be improved no more, he stepped back to look at it, confident he would see sheer gloriousness.
Horror! No light reached the small sapling, and so his web could barely be seen, hidden among the shadows. The jealous trees had once again flaunted his design, their branches outstretched to steal the sunlight from his web. Spider could have screamed with frustration, but hunger was making him weak. He realised he could not remember the last time he had eaten, being without a web for so long.
Weak and hungry, he dragged himself back to his most beautiful web, hanging at the outskirts of the forest. Fox’s words came back to him unbidden; “Why do you spin?”
The answer hit Spider. He remembered the reason he had located his web thus; not for beauty’s sake, but because sweet bees, tasty flies and wholesome dragonflies often flitted this way and that between the berry bushes that grew thereabout; he had been preparing for a feast of gargantuan proportions when the praise of Lion and Elephant had distracted him completely!
“Foolish Spider!” he cried, and began the work of rebuilding his web to a state that could catch a squadron of insects.
*
The next day, the animals came to Spider’s web as soon as the sun rose, eager to see true splendour.
Lion blinked at Spider’s new web, baffled. “Spider, this is not new, or better, just more of the same! Insects have ruined the design, and shaken the dew from this once marvellous tapestry!”
“Mediocrity!” The Elephant harrumphed.
Spider was not at all offended by their comments; he almost seemed amused. “Lion, you are quite right. Insects have flown in such great number into my web I have not been able to fix all the holes, though I have feasted merrily. But a spider’s web was never intended to be beautiful; it is my net, my sticky trap for all insects who wander hence; it is my dining table and the most comfortable home a spider could ever wish for, as long as it is located near fields of plenty!”
Elephant and Lion commented that those were some of the wisest words they had ever heard uttered from a spider’s mouth (though they would have liked to see another web which outdid the first).
Spider laughed. “Get another spider to make you a web! He will be cold and hungry, while I am full and content!”