Blog 62

I’m terrified of spiders. It’s a recent development really; in the past year or so I have developed a phobia of large proportions. When I was little I’d marvel at the spiders at the zoo, big fuzzy tarantulas and tiny little ones that crawled all over each other and not have a problem at all. Now I feel a wave of panic every time I think of all of those little legs crawling over each other and the little pokey pinchers that they use to suck the life out of other insects.

Rationally, I am able to recognize that if a spider comes at me I can just step on it.  I am a large organism, the top of the chain. I am capable of killing other predators, or eating things like cows. I am woman, and I can definitely smoosh a tiny little crawly thing.

Simply put, it’s psychological. I hate the idea of lots of little organisms. Or, in the case of that Harry Potter movie, lots of very large organisms. It’s the lots that get me. What triggered my fear in the first place was a dream that followed the watching of that movie. I feel asleep on the sofa before the movie was over and dreamt that spiders were on my face, striking at it and poking venom into my eyelids. Whilst asleep, I started flailing and whacked my boyfriend, who was still watching the movie, in the nose and he shook me awake. I hope that one day I’ll shake it, or at least have it fade away.