WESTERN SKIES - August 2, 2005

*** COMMENTARY: SPIDER TRAPS ***

ERIC WHITNEY: It's good to be prepared, to think about how to deal with worst case scenarios, but there's a fine line between being ready for contingencies and naked paranoia. Commentator Lucy Bell argues that obsessing on our fears might be the worst way to prevent the outcomes that we dread.

LUCY BELL: A woman living in Colorado Springs is so gripped by arachnophobia that she routinely slides flat pieces of cardboard covered with stick-um under her couches and chairs. When she pulls them out they are covered with spiders. Next, she gets a magnifying glass and examines the captured creatures to see if any are the poisonous brown recluse.

This story amazes and captivates me. While I'm not sure that thoughts can manifest into matter, there's something strange going on here. It reminds me of the movie Field of Dreams: build it and they will come. Or as Thoreau said, "We are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspected."

The truth is, when we invest energy into something, it tends to increase in our lives. Maybe negative, our fear energy has even stronger power. Thinking more about this, I realize we all have spider traps. I'll tell you about a couple of mine.

Marcia, whom I often see at the dog park, judged my lab puppy to be out of control. She began sheltering her beagle from him, yelling at my dog if he came near. I decided to avoid them. Last week, thinking I spotted her, I anxiously turned my dog in the opposite direction. He happily raced to the creek where he made a flying leap to the chest of a lady standing there. It was Marcia, the only person he jumped on the whole time we'd been there, the only one I was afraid of him jumping on. Spider trap.

Sometimes I have sleep problems while traveling. I read that a shortage of certain amino acids could be the cause. With a two-week cruise coming up, I decided to try these supplements. The more I invested my time and energy into the solution, the more consumed I became with the problem and the worse I slept. Spider trap.

Fear has power and feeds on itself. How do we avoid surrounding ourselves with spider traps? Two possibilities are; one: ignore them. This lack of attention sometimes works with unruly pets and show-off kids. It might work with my sleep problem.

Two: befriend them. Turn the negative energy into positive. I could greet Marcia with a smile and say, "I'm sorry my dog jumped on you. It's the last thing I wanted him to do."

The lady with the spider phobia could talk to CSU Extension arachnid expert, Jerry Prisk, who says the brown recluse is not indigenous to Colorado and almost never found here. She might read a chapter of Charlotte's Web every night, follow it up with Navaho stories of Spider Woman, and relocate the next spider she sees with the words, "Grandmother, I prefer that you live outside."

What are your spider traps? What can you do about them?

WHITNEY: Lucy Bell is a retired teacher and writing consultant from Colorado Springs, who currently leads a reading group on Ralph Waldo Emmerson.

And that wraps up this edition of Western Skies. Stephen Raher is our Associate Producer, Delaney Utterback takes care of the information technology, and we get help from the whole KRCC staff. I'm Eric Whitney, thanks for tuning in.