Spiders and what not...

As a grown up, I realize that through the course of life I have learned many valuable lessons. Some of them were taught to me by my mom and dad. Some of them I learned in school and through experience. Many of them were taught to me by my aunts. Now, I am an aunt and my oldest niece recently started kindergarten. I know that they say, everything you need to know you learn in kindergarten. I disagree. I believe that there are some things one cannot learn in a classroom. These are lessons that can only be learned by living. So, here it is. A year's worth of tiny words of wisdom for all of the nieces and nephews out there, or really for anyone who will listen. They may not work for everybody and you may not agree with all of them, but each one is a rule that I either try to live by or wish I did.

# 14 Catch Spiders in a Jar

I would like to begin by saying that this is one that I am still working on. I am almost there, but I don't quite have it yet.
My mother would never kill spiders. "Don't kill it," she would say, "they kill mosquitos." She would stop whatever she was doing, whether it be drying her hair, laundry, cooking, and would always catch spiders in a jar.
Now, there is actually an art to it. You can't just put a jar down and hope that the spider jumps in. In order to catch a spider properly in a jar you need: a small glass jar, slightly larger than a baby food jar. Then you need exactly half of a paper plate. It has to be one of those cheap, flimsy paper plates with the ridges on the rim. Then you very gracefully, and quickly, place the jar down around the spider, before he knows what hit him. Then you slide the jar, and its contents, onto the half of a paper plate. Once this is accomplished, you pick up both the plate and the jar and take him outside and release him.
I know it may sound simple, but trust me, the hardest part is the moment when you pick up both the plate and the spider. It took me a very long time to get it so the spider would not fall out in the split second that I stood up.
There are lots of reasons why you shouldn't spray spiders with your hairspray, or beat them with your shoe, or surrender your house to them and just move. Spiders eat mosquitos. That is a proven fact. I would also like to interject here with, I have no problem with you killing mosquitos. Spiders also, are more afraid of you than you are of them. I know you've heard that one before, but imagine being dropped down in a land where everyone was at least 10,000 times your size. I would certainly not want one of them to stomp on me with his shoe. Also, spiders have families that they need to provide for, just like we do. They do not come into your house to scare you. They get lost and loose their way, and need someone to rescue them.
The moral of the story is this: Save a spider, kill a mosquito.