Author Information
The Spider
The Spider
By Jacob Coffman
The Tears of God were coming and going, sometimes seeming like there
was no
end to his sadness, and at others they gave way to brief moments of
happiness. Every now- and- then, He would unleash his anger in a mighty
bolt
of lightning in the heavens and send a screaming boom of rage to earth.
This didn’t stop the man though, he enjoyed it. For some reason, the
night
captivated him, like it was calling his name. It brought about a
welcomed
sadness that he believed every person should have. It opened his mind
for
countless thoughts only he would think of under the engulfing beauty of
the
moon light. He loved the peace and quiet of it all, except for this
night,
the silence was broken by the sound of God’s tears and rage, which just
added to the aroma of the night. He could just barely hear the
hypnotizing
sound of his jeans and shoes scraping against the wet pavement over his
music.
Unlike most people of the area, he didn’t mind getting his clothes wet
or
putting holes in his clothing through his own acts of stupidity, rather
than
paying eighty dollars for pants with holes already in them. His green
shirt
was beginning to become spotted with the tears of God and so were his
jeans.
The man didn’t bother to put on a jacket when he decided to go for his
walk
because after all, your clothes got wet in the wash and you got wet in
the
shower.
As he walked along listening to his solemn music from his iPod, he
couldn’t
help but to admire the shear power he was witnessing right before him.
Thousands of degrees and thousands more watts being produced in the
blink of
an eye, something men have been trying to accomplish for hundreds of
years.
And yet, by some powerful force, or by some series of consequences, it
happens. With no visible effort, it just happens. Things like this have
always amazed the man, and kept him captivated for hours at a time.
The natural cycle of life also amazed him. One couldn’t possibly
comprehend
the amount of struggle a life form must conquer in order to survive.
Even
something as simple as a blade of grass, like the ones he was passing,
amazed him. Without a brain or any form of intelligence, this form of
life
somehow could manage to rise against the forces of nature holding it
down.
This thought brought other thoughts to the man, like the power of the
rain
falling to his feet, giving life to everything around him.
Something as simple and harmless as the rain drops falling, could be
deceivingly destructive. He found it ironic that the bringer of all
life to
the planet could easily destroy all it helped to create. Just as the
man was
about to think deeper into this matter, the most destructively
beautiful
thing he’d ever seen was above his head.
A bolt of rage tore through the clouds and lit the night with a
penetrating
light. And in front of him was a tree, striped bare of its leaves, with
a
perfectly spun web between two branches. In the center, there was a
black
spider with crimson streaks running down its back. The spider was
clinging
to its only means of survival as it was being whipped violently in the
wind
of the storm. Another bolt screamed through the sky and the spider was
once
again visible. The man could almost feel the spiders fear as it clung
for
its life, and started to think about all the struggles it had gone
through
just to get to this point in its life, where it could either make the
decision to let go and end all agony, or hold on and pull through to
live on
to another day.
A third bolt shot through the sky and the spider was once again
clearly
visible. The man started to think of the hours it must have spent
trying to
get its web to the piece of beauty that it was now, and wondered in the
spider would simply give up and let it all go to ruin. The rain was
pounding
down now, like God was tormenting to spider to give up, and end all of
it
suffering. But the spider was strong willed and held to its web. The
storm
was picking up, and the man pulled out his phone to check the time, ten
o’
clock.
The man decided to leave the spider and head for his house to dry off.
But
as he walked back, he couldn’t help but think what would become of the
spider. Would it give in and perish, like many other forms of life to
what
had helped create it, or would it pull through and rise against the
odds?
As the man entered his home, took the music out of his ears and turned
on
the lights, he felt happiness come over him. It was almost like the
light
was bringing him back from his own despair and sucking out any
remaining
thoughts he had during his walk. After doing a few things, he went into
his
room and tried to go to sleep.
He lay there in his bed, in the darkness, and the thoughts came back
to
him. He wondered what would become of the spider, and the amount of
fear it
must have been going through. After hours of dwelling on this and other
miscellaneous topics, the man finally fell into a deep slumber. But
before
doing so, he realized that the tiny spider represented something great.
No
matter what the odds are, one must hold out. Even when it seems that
God is
sending all his rage against you, hold on to what you have. It just
might
save you from what ever end you might come to, weather it be a happy
ending
or a sad one, hold on.
