Being God

There is life all around us. It’s sad that many people do not give thought to the life that is around them. I don’t mean macro organisms but rather all the smaller things such as the microbiomes which live in and on our bodies and even things like fruit flies or bugs that live on our skin. These microbiomes extend beyond our physical bodies. Every human being also continuously sheds hair and skin, and in our dwellings there are organisms which can live off this detritus from our bodies. There are also organisms which live off these organisms. Our bodies create an entire ecosystem of which we are God to these living beings.

The other day I went into my bathroom and there was a large spider in it. My first reaction, as probably most people’s reaction would be, was one of concern and and fear. Fear that, if loose and wandering around my apartment, that he might eventually bite me.

So I decided to capture him and found a glass container to cover him with. Up until this point he was really mellow, just staying mostly in one spot in the sink. But when I tried to put the container over him he freaked out and started running around very excitedly inside the sink basin.

I felt really, really bad about this. This poor, gentle, delicate little creature was just a part of my biome. He probably has wandered around my apartment eating some of the smaller organisms which are tied to me. So he was basically a part of my biome, a part of me. In a very real way, I am like God to this little spider. I honestly think that he knew who I was when I was trying to capture him. When he was freaking out in the sink basin it was like hell for him because I – God – was trying to capture him. But rather than loving and cherishing this precious creature I was small-minded and selfish.

In the moment I tried to capture him I wasn’t very God-like. I was a typical petty, unappreciative human who, instead of seeing this spider as a precious part of my own biome, saw him as some foreign entity that I needed to remove.

What other way can we be God if we cannot even be God in the biomes that we create, which are a living part of us and which extend in and around our home environments?

I did manage to catch the spider and put him outside where I hope he will be ok. But rather than feeling safe after putting him outside I felt sad and disappointed in myself.