@Rach “I wouldn’t want to waste your time assuming otherwise”
I don’t think you’re wasting your time, Rachel, it is right that you counter what you see as insensitivity in other with your own enhanced sensitivity, which is IMO very widely shared by countless people around the world, and increasingly by millenials and other ordinary young people in Europe.
My daughter, in her 40s, has been a vegetarian since age 16 and a vegan for more than 25. She is not a freak, and does not press her views on anyone. Since very early childhood she has been sensitive to all life-forms, without sentimentality, and I have learned from her.
I still put up flypapers in our kitchen, for reasons of food hygiene, but I am not comfortable with killing any insects and the ‘necessary’ death of other creatures calls that ‘necessity’ always into question in my mind.
I could quite easily have taken offense at the way Rachel writes, as though I take pleasure in and have the urge to go killing defenceless little creatures !
However I am not so small minded!
As I have already been bitten 4 times in the past by a spider, not the same one and on various occasions, and have had to visit hospital for emergency treatment then they are hardly defencless.
Maybe she can tell me what I have to do when at 9pm my elderly disabled mother is refusing to go to her bedroom because there is a large spider and she is terrified of them, as am I. The only solution for me is the vacumn cleaner, or does she suggest I 'phone the pompiers !
Ann, I would act in the same heroic pompier way if my wife or a child was scared (they are and my wife is terrified of snakey things even inanimate things) but I would always try to trap the scarey thing in question and “set it free” at a distance, because its fate would always be asked after e. g. “where have put it are you sure it won’t come in again?”
Knowing you own fear of creepy-crawlies you have my full sympathy. I think Rachel was upset about “crunching them” which also gives me the shivers as it may be quick but is not something that calls for onomatopoeiatic sound effects
I would the gallant thing (si vous le vouliez) to assuage your own distress
And as you well know I do have a bit of a Quixotic temperament and sometimes rush irritatingly and unnecessarily to the defence of the perceived demoiselle en détresse. Too many story books as a five year old, I suppose.
Remarks like " We all share this wonderful globe together and every life has a purpose and a reason for being. Please respect all the wonderful creatures you share your lovely home in France with."
leave me thinking that do these people even live in the real world?
I wonder how if such people had a deadly wasps nest in their bedroom, a real threat to them and their family would react. If they had a hornets nest threatening their family how they would react.
If they have domestic animals and they had a swarm of the very dangerous chenilles that can kill pets and are a danger to humans they would react.
If they have ticks, do they leave their children and animals unprotected?
If their animlals have worms are they treated, not forgetting that worms are a danger to humans !
If they have termites, do they leave their property unprotected …
It’s all very well to take the high moral ground, but sometimes it’s an idea to take a look at what they do before accusing others in a highly motive way !
Enough said, I think that I have made my point, I live here and have done so for very many years, I value life, all life, I am surrounded by beauty but I don’t need to boast about how many acres I have or why am I here or how moral I am !
Most of the exotic insects and arachnids that I find in my house get swept up and rehomed outside. For many that means an extended life but not for long as the cold or a predictor will kill them off pretty soon. I’m not sure that that is really any better than a short, sharp end.
My thanks to you Peter for your kinds words of understanding. I think my initial comment has been very badly lost in the barrage of abuse from a certain individual - her last, VERY long-winded response I will not use my time up in replying to as she has very clearly misunderstood me and is clearly filled with hate for “these people” as she put it - what exactly that means, I am not sure?? Does she mean nice, kind, peaceful and thoughtful people like me? Then it is her loss not to have met me! In the many years I have lived a happy life here in France, I do not think I have ever come across such an individual but being the person I am I shall just assume she is having a bad couple of days. Like your daughter, I turned vegetarian at a very young age, 11 actually, and vegan a number of years later. That would make it 49 years of my life respecting and loving life and nature and, like your daughter, never ever preaching to others, ever - everyone makes their choice and deserves respect. There is no harm in expressing your views (which was my initial response) as I feel I have the right to do so, just like those who made other comments, but I really do feel I have been subjected to an unnecessary and very personal attack just for my first very thoughtful comment. What a mistake it was to think it would be nice to join this forum and communicate with others around me here in France! I have no place on this forum and will cancel my account. I bid you all farewell!
Rachel it took you over a year from joining to post for the first time and then in wasn’t really about France. Perhaps if you participate in a wider range of topics you might find more kindred souls
Oh dear Rachel, please don’t go off hurt and cross, by all means do as you wish but not like this.
I think that the Christmas season is tiring and stressful in all sorts of ways and it is easy for misunderstandings to arise.
Anyway I hope you will continue to contribute to the discussion (possibly not this one, which could cease forthwith without it being a great loss).
Thanks, Véro, for that thought. As with Scrooge, I am always troubled by spectres of Christmases past in the protracted build-up to Christmas Day, and the associated anxiety and unhappiness takes a long time to subside. I am still shaking it off.
In some ways it is better that I spend the holiday alone, so as not to inflict gloom on others; although I miss my family I think they probably are better off without my spectral presence, although I tried to join in with the spirit of things. Every year I helped the children make a traditional Christmas cake, ice it, and decorate it. And eat it.
I’ve dismantled the tree here, and packed away the trimmings. I always feel a sense of relief when I do that.
Just FYI - I got stung / bitten / attacked by a green punaise in the middle of the night a couple of months back. It got me just under the eye and the pain was akin to someone sticking a needle in my eye. I had no idea they bite but then I never normally touch them (I was asleep and it was on my face, went to brush it off and it retaliated!)
I had a black eye for a couple of days and almost everyone who commented told me that they had no idea that punaise sting!
My ex was bitten by something similar some years back, it had a shiny greenish gold back , he says.
He had a nasty place on the bridge of his nose for some months, it was painful and bled a lot too !
My spider bites (never saw the spiders involved but the doc’s in all instances said they were caused those) were very painful and caused massive swelling, in one instance heart palpitations leading to emergency treatment, injections and antibiotics !
I have nursed a lady who lost her lower leg following a bite. My cousins former boss came close to having an amputation following a sting. Fortunately they eventually found the right antibiotic
It’s hardly surprising you’re so frightened of spiders.
When it’s a choice between you and a spider then the spider’s going to be the loser. People should consider that they don’t necessarily know all the facts before making sweeping, unpleasant comments.
