2 Matings, 2 Slayings
1. The spiders in my bathroom and I had a tacit agreement to coexist in spite of the revulsion. I would ignore them and leave them alone, but only because my bathroom has an ant problem and the spiders ate the ants. I even ignored the growing pile of discarded ant shell that was scattered behind my toilet, like so many coffee grinds, even though it made me shudder, because the dead ants had the SLIGHT advantage of not trying to bite me. But tonight I had to put my foot down when I spied TWO spiders. They were interacting, possibly mating, and the thought of a nest of reproducing spiders was more than I could bear. I exterminated them posthaste (translation: I got my mom to squish them; I have an unreasonable horror of any small insect-like thing with those scary compound eyes).
2. It was quite a different experience this afternoon when the mating involved two animals with a friendlier, non-compound eye. Two birds fell out of a tree onto the road right in front of my car. I was too close to stop, so I instinctually tried that maneuver I use for roadkill, which is to position them between my wheels so as to minimize further flattening. But this time that didn't work, because the birds were still mobile, and they tried to fly away once they spotted danger. Normally birds are successful at this sort of escape, but for the first time in my life, and to my great surprise, I saw them fail. I heard a thump, saw black object fly off to the side through my rearview mirror; and instantly I felt terrible. It's a shocking and sickening feeling to kill something. That feeling was only heightened by the fact that I killed the birds while they might have been mating. I remember the moment vividly: I had Little Richard's "Send Me Some Loving" playing in my car.
The rest of the day I was wishing I could get some absolution for this assault against the universe that I couldn't reverse. I really did feel bad about the birds. Then, a few hours later, I found I was to repeat that episode, but this time with the spiders...and without the remorse. The universe is a funny place, or else I have a funny relationship with it.
2. It was quite a different experience this afternoon when the mating involved two animals with a friendlier, non-compound eye. Two birds fell out of a tree onto the road right in front of my car. I was too close to stop, so I instinctually tried that maneuver I use for roadkill, which is to position them between my wheels so as to minimize further flattening. But this time that didn't work, because the birds were still mobile, and they tried to fly away once they spotted danger. Normally birds are successful at this sort of escape, but for the first time in my life, and to my great surprise, I saw them fail. I heard a thump, saw black object fly off to the side through my rearview mirror; and instantly I felt terrible. It's a shocking and sickening feeling to kill something. That feeling was only heightened by the fact that I killed the birds while they might have been mating. I remember the moment vividly: I had Little Richard's "Send Me Some Loving" playing in my car.
The rest of the day I was wishing I could get some absolution for this assault against the universe that I couldn't reverse. I really did feel bad about the birds. Then, a few hours later, I found I was to repeat that episode, but this time with the spiders...and without the remorse. The universe is a funny place, or else I have a funny relationship with it.
posted by Rex at 1:39 AM
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