Persistence versus flexibility
Fall has arrived once more and true to their habit, spiders of all shapes and sizes are at it again, building spider webs across every path and gate opening I utilize during morning chores.
Every morning I spit, sputter, mumble, and rub, trying to remove the sticky strands from my face, arms, and clothes. This season’s abundance of spidery creations reminds me that a little more than a year ago, a beautiful and artfully crafted spider web inspired me to write an article about human spider webs designed to trap and destroy our “enemies,” especially our political adversaries. Just as the spiders are extremely busy this year, the politicians have shifted into overdrive the spinning of deadly webs designed to destroy President Donald Trump.
Have you ever watched a spider constructing its web? A week ago, I engaged in serious combat with a rather large spider which kept insisting that a gate between two pastures belonged to~t and not to me. At least for the spider, the issue of gate ownership includes web-spinning rights as well as entrance and egress. At chore time each morning, I would absentmindedly blunder into this spider’s web, unintentionally destroying its previous night’s new construction. Being a gentleman, each time I ruined its web, I apologized to the spider.
After a few such encounters, I began to anticipate the web. Each morning I removed one or two of the web’s anchors and let the rest of the web fall to the side, allowing me passage. Soon the spider began to catch on and started spinning the web beside the gate so I could go through without creating a disturbance. One morning, as I approached the gate I notice the spider busy at work on its re-positioned web, so I stopped to watch the progress. I was amazed at the little fellows speed and dexterity. It was working on the outside rim, attaching an outer strand to spokes it had already put in place. This dude knew its stuff. Weaving like a sewing machine, it zoomed around the perimeter its web-a bug with a mission. I must take partial credit, given all the practice I forced upon it by ruining .its web each time I went through the gate.
Two lessons came to mind while I watched my arachnid friend; the first was persistence.
The spider’s determination to rebuild its web each time I broke it, brought back memories of my high school freshman English teacher, Mrs. Ireland. Her favorite word was “stick-to-itiveness.” She was always telling me, “Do it over and get it right.” I would hang in there and eventually, like the spider, I would get the project done. The second lesson that presented itself was about adjustment. The spider had come up against an immovable object-me. It might still be constructing and reconstructing each broken web had it not adjusted to the constant wreckage left in the wake of my trips through the gate. Eventually, it must have concluded that there was wisdom in anchoring its web to one side where I would not destroy each night’s construction.
Of course, I have no way of knowing if the new web location resulted from happenstance, instinct, or intelligence, but regardless ofthe spider’s incentive, its willingness to find a new place to attach its web presents us with a lesson in being flexible when circumstances reward flexibility over stubbornness.
If you think about it, these two lessons seem contradictory. The lesson of persistence teaches us to continue our efforts, sometimes even against seemingly impossible odds, and the need to be flexible teaches that persistence is sometimes simply unproductive, self-destroying, bullheadedness. This contradiction brings to mind the AA Serenity Prayer which asks God for the serenity to accept what we cannot change, the courage to change what we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Circumstances must determine the ratio of persistence to flexibility. let me suggest a ratio for two parts of our presently elected government with respect to what they are currently pursuing. President’s efforts to make America great: 99% persistence / 1% flexibility. House of Representative self-destructive efforts to impede and impeach: 99% flexibility /1% persistence.
DeWitt Clinton is a resident of Dunbar.