"Heaven's heartstrings
Spider's thread
Lift my spirit
   Something said...
 
Something to me
Through me - wound
Something spoke
   Without a sound..."


Re-reading Charlotte's Web after 50 years or so, if that counts as 're-reading', I'm struck by the fact that it is simply not just a kids book. It is a work on many layers and levels. Author E. B. White is brilliant in his metaphors and allegorical vignettes. I'm in awe of his insights. Recall when Fern's mother is concerned about her daughter supposedly talking to the animals, including Wilbur, the pig and also the mysterious, word-spelling spider; Charlotte? So like a good mother, she consults with the family doctor.

"Well, do you understand it?" asked Mrs. Arable.
"Understand what?"
"Do you understand how there could be any writing in a spider's web?"
"Oh no," said Dr. Dorian. "I don't understand it. But for that matter, I don't understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle."
"What's miraculous about a spider's web?" said Mrs. Arable. "I don't see why you say a web is a miracle. It's just a web."
"Ever try to spin one?" asked Dr. Dorian
"No," she replied.
"But I can crochet a doily and I can knit a sock."
"Sure," said the doctor. "But somebody taught you, didn't they?"
"My mother taught me."
"Well...who taught a spider?"
"I never looked at it that way before," she replied.
"Still, ...I don't understand it, and I don't like what I don't understand."
"None of us do," said Dr. Dorian.
"But I don't intend to let it worry me and doctors are supposed to know everything."

"Do you believe animals talk?" asked Mrs. Arable.
"I never heard one say anything... but that proves nothing," he said.
"Children pay better attention than grown-ups."
 
"Perhaps if people talked less, animals would talk more."

I can assure you of this;
When we talk less, we most definitely hear more.
And see more...

You'd be surprised where it can come from.

Thanks, Charlotte!

"Radiant..."
Your word, not mine.   ;)