A dead spider, Covid-19 vaccination and freedom
We are at the beginning of summer in Europe, and the other day I was on the phone with a very lovely friend of mine. She was speaking about her new project. A warm afternoon with the sun smiling happily through the curtains. Her animated voice seemed to swallow noise of a distant police siren.
As you can imagine, I was totally immersed in plans to execute her promising project. But out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a dark thing that resembled a ball of wires, moving stealthily and quickly not far from my left foot.
“Early next year I should be successful with this business,” she was saying as I started paying more attention to the sliding ball of wires while realising I could not really confirm what the object was.
The strange ball of wires was now closing the gap, and suddenly one eye (the right one) stopped looking at The Talking Woman. For five seconds there was a diversion. I found myself standing up and grabbing the dark ball. Half listening, I soon realised I had squashed the black object and hurled it into the dustbin.
Ten seconds later?
Back to my feminine companion.
“So by this time in 2022, we shall be talking money. We shall...”
Nodding and paying attention to her speech.
Three minutes later, it hit me.
What had I just done?
Wow.
Something awful.
Let us get a perspective of life in Europe. Normally, we have four major seasons. Winter, the longest, coldest, hence fewer insects. Then spring (mid-March to May), with occasional flies, and by June, which we are experiencing right now, all manner of creatures strolling and parading around. The weather getting warmer, and more visitors are gate-crashing indoors. Come autumn (October), and some of our earthly colleagues start disappearing, and in November, when winter returns, our worries are how to keep warm rather than swat and hit flies and spiders.
But oh no, wait.
One of the biggest jobs and duties of spiders is feeding on and sucking the blood of small pests like moths, fleas and flies. Flies have a role to play on Earth. They get rid of the dirt, but they also spread filth (as we know through their tiny legs), and that is why we generally dislike flies. Generally.
Hah! Like maggots and hyenas and vultures, flies are dedicated unpaid cleaners of the food chain, but we are forever annoyed by them.
Spiders? What did the author Emily Shackleton write about these 400-million-year-old insects in the November 2015 London Metro newspaper?
“Spiders’ consumption of insects isn’t just great for your house. They are essential for the ecosystem too. They eat bugs that feast on our crops such as aphids and caterpillars. According to spider expert Norman Platnick from the American Museum of Natural History, there would be a “famine” without them”.
Like bees, the 400-million-year-old eight-legged tiny web designers are useful, beneficial critters.
And to think that is what I had squashed while speaking to this brilliant lady on the phone. Sad.
So I told her.
She replied: “Listen, Frederick (note. Frederick, my full name), there are more things to think about than a dead spider. Think. God created every living thing. Only He can allow us to live or die. THAT was the time for the spider to die. We don’t know what would have happened if you had not killed it. Maybe it would have bitten your toe in the night?”
I said spiders have no interest in us. They are after flies.
She said, “I would rather speak about something else.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“I am concerned about the vaccine.”
Vaccine?
“Yes, the Covid vaccine. My eldest niece is 24, and she is not sure whether to take it or not. I had to take it because I’m a care worker. But she is not a care worker. And we don’t know about the side effects. Can we have babies? Do you know? You already took the vaccine, but you have children already. What do I tell my niece? What do I advise her? Tell me. The government is not telling us everything.”
And so the conversation left sweet project topics, past an eight-legged minion now lying in the dustbin, to Covid 19 vaccination. Getting vaccinated or being Covid INFECTED. You see this is what is affecting people’s mental health outlook in Europe. Not the current pleasant sunny weather. Not the freedom to get away from endless uncertain lockdowns.
But...
To vaccinate or not vaccinate – get infected with Covid-19 or risk the so-called side effects of a not-so-well-known vaccines. Moderna. Pfizer. AstraZeneca. And so on.
