Spiders

                When a spider lives in a cellar, down in the dank and cold, she doesn’t see many people.  Once in a while a human will climb down her creaking steps. They’ll bend their head to avoid the low pipes and they will search for what they came to retrieve.  In the brief time the person is present, the spider will pause in her web-weaving, and she will observe.

                When a spider lives in the corner of a cottage, she sees humankind on a daily basis.  They bustle about below her, and she hopes they don’t notice her.  If they do, then they’ll tear down her home.  She doesn’t mind that too badly though, she simply moves to a different corner – perhaps higher this time, and rebuilds.  Humans are always around, and this is a hazard that she is prepared to deal with.

                The first spider, the cellar-dweller, rarely sees people.  When she does though, she observes them very carefully.  She watches the way they move, the sounds they make, the tears they cry, and they smiles they beam.  She takes it all in curiously, and stores it away to ponder in the many long hours she spends weaving or waiting alone.

                The second spider is around people all the time.  She takes no special interest in what they do or the way that they do it – this is normalcy to her.  Things simply pass her observation, because after all, she is an expert in people.

                You see, the first spider doesn’t know people at all – she’s barely around them!  The second would be a much better judge of the race called Humans.