How Does Nature Help Us to See Things in a Different Light?

Spider webs—especially when they have large, scary spiders at the center and dead bugs trapped throughout—tend to “freak us out.” But such a web, spun by that nasty-looking spider, is actually a work of beauty.

Beyond its ability to help spiders catch prey, thereby providing the means to live, webs also provide spiders with water. When the morning dew settles on a spider’s web, that dew provides the spider with at least ten percent of the water it needs.

Spider webs are particularly beautiful when the morning dew makes them shimmer. Before the sun helps the dew to dry, we can see the beautiful symmetry of the web (and the artistry of the spider).

We could say that nature helps us to see things—like a spider’s web—in a totally different way. Have you ever thought that something was scary or gross, but nature has helped you to see it in a different light? Describe what you first thought was gross, or scary, and then describe how nature helped you to change your mind.

A spider’s web that is not covered with dew looks quite different from a web that is saturated with moisture. The same is true if we see the web at night instead of in the morning. It’s still the same web, though, whether we see it at night or in the daytime (and whether it’s wet or dry). Why do we respond to the same things, in different ways, depending on the light in which those items are cast?