Tangled Web

As a child, I learned these famous, truth-filled lines:

Oh! what a tangled web we weave

When first we practise to deceive!

I didn't know then, as I do now, that they were written by Sir Walter Scott; but I did know that not only was lying wrong, it was also stupid because one lie led to another and it was difficult to maintain a string of falsehoods.  Telling the truth was simpler (not to mention, more righteous!).

Scott's poem flashed through my mind yesterday as I happened to come into my garage at just the right time to see the late afternoon sun illuminating a large spider web in the corner of the door.  Two webs, actually, although one is significantly smaller than the other.  

I thought about knocking down the webs, but then I talked myself out of it.  After all, they weren't hurting anything or anyone, and I don't mind spiders living outside--that's where they belong, after all.  So I let them stay...and walked away grateful for a visual reminder to live a life of integrity.

If we are wise and let them, those childhood lessons follow us all the way into adulthood; and sometimes, all it takes to remind us is a glimpse of a tangled web.