Boris the Spider

Tonight there was a spider crawling on our kitchen ceiling. Occasionally it would drop down on it's little string and venture closer to us, which would result in screams from the females present. We decided that it needed to not be stalking us anymore, so we implored my brother (who is impervious to creepy crawly fear) to squash it. His attempts rendered more screaming as he didn't quite get it first try, or second, or third. Most of the screaming was superfluous and quasi-joking, but later tonight I was thinking about the whole situation. I feel bad killing spiders and other creepy bugs. I mean, not to the point where I won't do it, but it just seems weird to kill a thing just because it's scary. Especially when you know that scary thing isn't harmful to you. A spider isn't going to bite you or kill you or cause you pain (at least not the kinds that live around these parts). It made me think about relationships and how sometimes people kill them because they get too close, and they get scared. Even though the fear is completely irrational. It's a defense mechanism, a habitual reaction. It made me wonder if maybe, if I could stop killing spiders, that other people could learn to love even if it scares them or makes them uncomfortable at times.
All of this is a lot to draw out of an incident with an arachnid, but still. I mean, I tried to google "cute spider" so that I could convince myself that there would be a spider that was so cute that even I wouldn't want to squash it. Alas, all the photos that came up still gave me the heebie-jeebies. Here is the only picture of a "spider" that didn't make me creeped out:

Well, that is all. I just wanted to share my thought with you all. Carry on!