You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
--Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
It might make you feel better to know that this little guy was just the size of a dime. The dark area you see on the left is the grout line on my tiled kitchen counter. Over the past couple of years I've gotten much better dealing with snakes and spiders and assorted creepy crawlers -- and I credit the macro lens for that. Instead of running for the fly swater or paper towels, I now run for the camera! Like the quote above, I've found that when something scares me, fleeing only reinforces the fear, drawing closer forces me to recognize that my fear was unfounded and based largely on the unknown. Although I'm better in dealing with these things, it doesn't mean the photo above isn't heavily cropped. This was, afterall, a jumping spider.
--Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
It might make you feel better to know that this little guy was just the size of a dime. The dark area you see on the left is the grout line on my tiled kitchen counter. Over the past couple of years I've gotten much better dealing with snakes and spiders and assorted creepy crawlers -- and I credit the macro lens for that. Instead of running for the fly swater or paper towels, I now run for the camera! Like the quote above, I've found that when something scares me, fleeing only reinforces the fear, drawing closer forces me to recognize that my fear was unfounded and based largely on the unknown. Although I'm better in dealing with these things, it doesn't mean the photo above isn't heavily cropped. This was, afterall, a jumping spider.
That is just creepy Mark! You know better than to put that on there--I almost had an attack!
ReplyDeleteInspite of the high scarriness level, it is a pretty cool picture. Peace, DAO
Ha ha - I actually thought of you when I posted this. Face your fears, Andy.
ReplyDeleteI actually got rid of the screen when this guy popped up!
ReplyDeleteI was once in a lecture class at the hallowed Ayers Hall on UT campus, when I spotted a spider on the back of the desk in front of me. This was my chance, I thought, to desensitize myself to this unreasonable fear, if I could just sit there with him for the length of class. But I kept my eye on him.
What I didn't realize, was that he was a jumping spider. Half way through the lecture, he jumped from the back of the other desk onto MY desktop. My defensive knee-jerk reaction was to scoot myself away from him, so I violently pushed at my desktop to move my chair back. HOWEVER, it was all made into one piece and my grip gave way, shoving all my books and papers flying through the air!!
The prof stopped in mid sentence, and everyone turned to stare. To save face in explanation, I acted like I was stomping some offensive creature, but I really had no idea where the spider landed.
My aversion lives on.
Too funny, Janni -- that's a great story. Sorry to bring back such frightening (and socially awkward) memories! :P
ReplyDelete