I was helping a neighbor put up some decorations just the other day. At one point I had to go out to the garage to find something. Because of the climate and weather our area has lots of daddy long legs spiders. This garage was no exception. One area by an unused side door, with its' floor-to-ceiling, built-in, wooden shelves and array of haphazardly stacked cardboard boxes, had a web that made me stop and observe.

The web itself, like an old and used berthing hammock, clung across the doorway at waist level. I watched as a fly flew directly into the web, getting stuck, where it was quickly set upon by a rather big spider. The daddy long leg spider lay its forelegs upon the fly, who was having seizures at this point to free itself, and began to mechanically move its rear legs in a back and forth motion. Each movement covering the fly in a fine layer webbing. I had to watch closely to discern the details of the fly struggling against the spiders threading legs.

The spider itself held the fly in its front two legs, and wrapped the fly with its rear two, while the middle sets of legs balanced the spider firmly in the web. It worked very fast (as swift as the coursing river?) and never seemed to pause to reset itself. While I believe that the fly posed no threat to the spider, I do believe that holding onto a giant vibrating object while standing on a web might not be an easy feat. The fly buzzed and buzzed and, as it did its buzzing, the sound of the buzzing became quieter and quieter tho it never ceased its buzzing. Then I saw another spider.

This one was smaller than the spider that had the fly, about half the size, and I watched as it cautiously and methodically made its way toward the buzzing fly. The larger spider, like me, hadn't seemed to notice the arrival of the other spider until now. The smaller spider had gotten close enough now and reached in for the fly.

The larger spider seemed to move even faster and all at once. He continued holding the buzzing fly, and spinning webs on it, and holding his place in the web, all while fighting off the smaller spider. It was amazing - haha - to see the speed and fluidity of these these spiders as they go at each other all for a fly. The smaller spider was very tenacious and of course didn't have a fly in its legs, and it was every bit as fast as the larger spider, and so it forced the larger spider to put the fly back into the webs and defend itself with all eight legs.

Once the larger spider was able to use all eight legs it swiftly beat the smaller spider back into the far corners of the web. Literally to where the sun wasn't shining. Then the larger spider returned to the fly, still on the web where it had left it, who was still buzzing in the cocoon, and went back to wrapping it up. I watched as the spider wrapped web after web around the buzzing fly.

It seemed to go on forever, and for the fly I'm sure it was, tho it was probably less than five minutes. The smaller spider had stayed back where it had ran off to and I watched it as it watched the larger spider. I wondered if it was going to try another attack. The larger spider seemed to think the same as it would turn its body in a way so that the smaller spider would always be in its field of vision. Too bad for that large spider though because right then, out of the shadowy shelves, came an even bigger spider, creeping right towards the faintly buzzing fly.

This newer spider was bigger than both of the other spiders combined and more. It was such a giant that they looked comically small in comparison. It was so big, extra thick even by daddy long leg standards, that its mass shook the web with more force than when the other spiders had fought over the fly. It didnt take long for this long legged daddy long leg to make its way to where the other spider held the fly.

When it got there it actually reached out and grabbed the fly from the other spider, ripping it free from the web as well. It then stuck the fly on another part of the web. This all happened very fast. Then it beat the other spider back into the corner like a grown person kicking a kitten. It was just a flurry of spider legs and that giant spider was showing no mercy. It was just pure instinct and the giant spider didn't stop and it just kept on attacking anything it saw and even the smallest spider, that had just be sitting there hiding in the shadows, had to run away again.

When the giant spider, seeming satisfied that no other spiders where going to mess around anymore, went back to the fly that had never once stopped its buzzing. The giant spider reached the fly and plucked it from the web like a Sunday paper. Its intentions were to carry the fly off someplace and dine at its leisure. I saw that the other, large spider, the one that had done all the work wrapping up the fly, had begun creeping its way towards the giant spider.

The large spider launched itself at the giant spider. The giant spider had been holding the fly in its front legs and was forced to switch the feebly struggling fly to its' back set of legs when the large spider attacked. The force of the initial combat tore the web in such a way that the giant spider fell through a hole and all at once was dangling from beneath the web while holding the fly who, it seemed, had sensed the urgency of the situation and renewed its buzzing with more vigor now than ever.

The two spiders continued their clash with the giant spider now being at a disadvantage. Both dangling from the underside of the web by their two front legs and lashing outward with the rest. The giant spider still held the fly in its rear set of legs letting it hang low and back from the large spiders flails. The giant spider seemed to need to stretch more and more to keep the fly away from the large spider. To its credit the large spider unloaded on the giant spider with no mercy.

Due to the fighting and struggling, of both spiders, the fly got dropped to the ground and landed somewhere among the dusty cardboard boxes. I was able to spy its web wrapped form buzzing in the crevice between two boxes. Whatever comes along and finds it will thankful that its already wrapped up tight.

Both spiders seemed to stop now that the fly had been dropped and even the smallest spider crawled out from the shadows. The spiders, small and large and giant, seemed to understand that the faint buzzing, a sound signaling what could have been their survival, was now lost to all three.

A lot of things crossed my mind as I watched all of that unfold.

I see a spider finding a fly. I see that spider willing to web it and defend it. I see another spider willing to take it and even fight for it. I see another spider that waited for the work to be done, it waited for the fly to be cocooned; it waited for the other spiders to fight themselves out over it, before coming in to take it. I see how conflict destroys what you fight to protect...or to take. I see how the spiders all sense that loss.

I see the parallels of the human world.