Note: There will be NO pictures with this blog post. I realize this will make some people sad, and others very grateful. I happen to be staying in the "I would never be able to visit your blog again if you included pictures" camp.
I sort of have a fear of spiders.
Notice how on the screen, even the word Spiders is creepy looking? Fitting, I guess.
I haven't always been afraid of spiders. I distinctly remember being about 4 years old, and pulling the legs off of a live daddy long legs spider one at a time. Ew. I think I was 5 or 6 when my arachnophobia started. The incident involved a black widow, a five-gallon bucket, and my head. The fear has been renewed several times over with incidents involving four different siblings and a dad (separately and usually on multiple occasions), black widows or brown recluses, and many hospital trips.
What bothers me so bad about them?
Maybe it's the two extra legs. Six legged creatures don't bother me at all. Those eight legs make them able to glide so silently and gracefully toward their prey. Kinda like the old men in Hush. Well, except for those little spiders that move like you are watching them in the dark with a strobe light.
Or maybe it's the crunchy exoskeleton. I was running down the hall when I was a kid, and accidentally stepped on a crunchy spider bare-footed. Yeeaaggghh. [shudder, shudder] Twenty-three years later, and I can still remember what it felt like. And it still gives me the willies.
No, it has to be their abdomen. It's so big and puffy and always looks like it is about to burst and spew infection-looking goo everywhere. But worse than infection. Poison. Spiders are like little vials of poison that are mobile, with a mind of their own. A mind that makes them want to hide so they can jump out and scare you. Or maybe even so they can bite you, and then scurry away before you've even noticed them enough to do anything about it.
How are some people not completely weirded out by spiders? I'm just glad that I don't live somewhere where they are more than miniature vials of poison. I don't think I could handle a rat-sized mobile vial of poison.
And I don't care what psychologists will try to tell you, I don't believe irrational fears are as irrational as they would have you believe. I'll explain my theory tomorrow.
9 years ago
7 comments:
Peggy--even a compassionate spider affectionado like myself can appreciate why other people are not-so-much liking of them! There is a definite creep-out factor!! All of you rationale is valid! Especially after reading your oh-so-descriptive title......
i am one of those that is VERY glad that you didn't post any pictures, i don't think that i would be able to return to your blog if you had. and i agree with you on all of your theries. i think the eight legs is what creeps me out. just the word spider brings chills to me.
I've never had a like or dislike of spiders. I really don't like them in my house but I will converse with them while working in the garden.
Your description was so vivid I can't wait until part 2.
Man.. what did that spider do to you?
I can empathize with the spider history. I don't like them at all. Secret here. I even make my kids kill them for me. I could tell you terror stories and the most hilarious story about spiders. But mine started when I was younger, out on a farm. We were stepping on spiders (they were remodeling the patio outside the house) and I stepped on a spider and/or a nest and all of the baby spiders (and others I am sure) went running up my pant leg and into my boots. Ever since, I am terrified.
Peg, I'm a visiting reader from JaNae's site, but I have to comment because I, too, have an extraordinary fear of these creatures - be it from the looks, how they chase me down, the crunch, the poison, the eyes... whatever. I could tell you spider stories that would send you into hysterics (laughing, not screaming) about my hysterics. I look forward to tomorrow's post.
The phrase "crunchy exoskeleton" was so vivid, it seemed to be highlighted on the page!
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