Spider - Life of Constant Change

Today early morning I had a sight of a spider web in my home. It was beautiful. The spider was at the Centre as well. The precision in which the web was built was an amazing example of consistency and excellence. While this is not the first time that I paid attention to spiders, it was different today. Triggered a variety of thoughts inside me.

Firstly, about Spiders:

I am by no means qualified to write about spiders – I am more of a number’s person, with commerce and accounting background. I have lived a life so far through dealing with numbers in Banking! From what I have understood over the past few years of my interest in spiders, some data points worth noticing

·        There are approx. 43,000 species of spiders found across the globe

·        In south India, there are over 37 varieties

·        Some of the spiders build their webs frequently and some are not so.

·        On an average the spider builds one web a day

·        Spiders produce both adhesive and non-adhesive silk from their body

·        Some spiders build artistic webs, to attract the prey. The decorations and size of webs depends on the various external conditions.

·        The silk used in the web, is attractive in UV light. As some of the insects (prey) are attracted to the reflections of the UV light seen in the web

·        On an average about 2 insects is what spider gets through the web. On some lucky days, they get bigger insects and more insects.

·        The silk is a product based on the proteins that they find in the prey

·        Spider uses its own body as a measurement to build the so-called ‘perfect’ web.

·        Outer layers are non-adhesive and inner layers are spaced carefully for the spider to move around. 

This list of features can go on and you can find more info in some of the websites created by spider enthusiasts around the world.

Secondly, about Spiders:

Spiders to me personally stand for resilience. It has a huge amount of perseverance and focus. How many times have humans and machines have destroyed their web? Until the spider is killed, the web creation goes on – as it is linked to the purpose of ‘prey’. Spiders are standing examples of inside-out and outside-in approaches. The silk is inside-out. And the web building is outside-in. The outermost threads are constructed first in a web, and slowly and steadily the interconnecting layers are formed, and eventually, the web is complete. Spiders are testimony to perfection and passion. Take a closer look at any of the webs that you see in your surroundings. They are evenly spaced, some amazing design stuff in there! Spiders work on themselves – they don’t go out and hunt prey, it builds something super amazing that ‘attracts’ the insects to come in. Making the web carefully and so thoroughly to attract its prey. And sometimes the prey escapes too. Spiders choose their locations carefully and agile. You don’t see the webs in the areas that you move around frequently. It always finds a quiet unused corner within homes or even on trees in between leaves! They are very agnostic – I understand that there was an experiment conducted to link the gravity and the ability of spiders to build webs. Some spiders were taken to space as an experiment (in 1973), and they did build webs. Though not strong as you might see on the earth, however, they did build. Eventually died of dehydration. In another published story, once the spiders joined together to build a bigger web. And in one such case that was identified in Texas, the measurement has been 200 yards across (180m).

Thirdly, from Spiders

This set me reflecting on the qualities that inspired me. These qualities are so very simple and most relevant even in situations like what we are facing now (covid19). I also reflected on when some of these qualities have helped me to get what I want and what did I miss, in some circumstances which did not go as per what I envisaged. These are life-events, and learnings are aplenty.

In the beginning of the year we saw the news trickling down about the Covid19, and by mid-April, almost all countries were in the middle of this pandemic. From a community perspective, I happened to notice what was happening inside me and around me. There is panic. There is Fear. There is uncertainty. There is chaos. Not just about my own physical wellbeing, it is also about the businesses and the outlook about the future. The change that we were all witnessing and the fact is that mood was helpless. I am not generalizing there, these some of my own reactions and the reactions that I noticed in the people I interact with. It is like our web has been destroyed by force!

Fourthly, Five teachings of Spiders

The essential qualities that comes to me from a spider’s life are:

(a)   Determination and Focus – Even when the web is destroyed, build the next one. Beautify it, make it perfect and precise. Let it stand as our signature. In businesses, these are our ‘actions and work’. Cannot afford to build a low-quality web, because it will get destroyed.

(b)   Perseverance – Make the web so attractive that everyone, including who you would like to attract into your business, will find it so attractive. Concentrate on perfecting the web, until that happens

(c)    Resilience – Setbacks are reality sometimes. Don’t let it pull you down. The longer you are being stuck, the longer you lose. Bounce back – build the next web, as if it is your life’s purpose

(d)   Agility – If you can’t find that quiet corner in the room to build the web, find a tree, find the back yard, find something, where you can carefully build your web, without it being destroyed by predators

(e)   Be in the moment – After you have commenced building the web, let the thoughts about future not bother you and slow you down. You can’t control what you will attract – whether you will attract. The more these thoughts bother you, your quality of the web will go down. When building the web, be positive and passionate. What needs to evolve will evolve.

I am beginning my new day, in my actions of internalizing and applying the teachings. How about you?

(Kannan Swaminathan is a practicing executive coach and a nature enthusiast. He works in leaders across industries. If you would like to explore how his work can help you and your organization, kindly get in touch via [email protected])

Source: Publicly available information in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_web, https://daily.jstor.org/surprising-facts-about-spiderwebs/, https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/insects-invertebrates/facts-about-spiders/,https://sciencing.com/types-spiders-ottawa-valley-7795023.html, https://www.southindianspiders.org/south-indian-spiders3.htm