My loss of innocence

As a young, newly escaped monkey, I assumed that the rest of the animal kingdom operated the way monkeys and humans did . . . bent on revenge. Having been raised in a lab, it is only natural that I would be a tad clueless as to how the rest of the natural world works.

One of my most vivid memories from my early days as an escapee was my first real loss of innocence.

I dislike spiders. They creep me out. Some folks hate bats, others clowns. I hate spiders.

So, my memory is of being in the woods . . . lost, wondering if perhaps I shouldn't have run away . . . when I realized that a rather large spider was very close to my foot. Naturally, I stepped on the spider and smashed it. But, then I realized that spiders have many, many, many relations . . . and if they were as bent on revenge as humans and monkeys . . . I was a goner.

I remember standing very still amongst the trees . . . waiting for the hordes of spiders . . . aunts, uncles, brothers, etc of the poor thing I'd just snuffed to come get me. After several minutes, I came to realize no hordes were going to come get me. There would be no revenge. I could kill spiders with no regard for their feelings or their loved ones.

And, that was my first real loss of innocence. Of course, I didn't know about karma in those days.