William Wizard's Web of Life

William the Wizard had a sense of humour, for sure. He was efficient enough at his work, but he believed a laugh is as good as any magic, and if he could get a laugh out of something, he did.

It was thus that he waited till the nursery class was performing Little Miss Muffet for the benefit of the older ones and the doting parents, that he set his pet spider on them.

William the Wizard possessed a big pet spider. A big, multi-coloured pet spider. A pet spider the size of a fair-sized kitten, which gleamed in all the colours of the rainbow.

And it was this pet spider that descended on the arm-rest of the Principal's chair, just when the little ones chimed, "along came a spider and sat down beside her ..."

The Principal, (not Miss Muffet, but, as it turned out, Miss Disha) wasn't frightened away immediately. The spider was so big and looked so unreal, she thought it was there for special effects. It was when the Nursery Class teacher screamed and pointed at it that Miss Disha understood that it was unintentional, and one of the tiny tots yelled, "And frightened Miss Disha away ..." from the stage.

The Principal's niece, who was sitting next to her and had jumped off her own seat, stood staring at the spider. He waggled his legs at her ... that is, four out of eight legs. In a sort of dance move. She watched, her fascination overcoming her fear. Then, she realised - the spider was beckoning her closer.

She didn't even stop to think. She just leaned in.

"I come in peace," the spider said. "William the Wizard has sent me."

"Whar are you doing, leaning so close to that creature? Come away at once," Miss Disha yelled to her niece, from a safe distance.

"Come away at once," echoed several of the parents and teachers present. But the little girl was listening raptly to the spider.

"Listen," she announced finally. "The spider wants us to play a game with him. He has told me what we're supposed to do."

It took some persuading, but the adults finally agreed. The children, of all ages, were thrilled.

The spider went on to the stage, and grew and grew and grew.

There were ooooohs and aaaaahs and screams and cheers.

Then, the spider started spinning a web around the entire hall. It was beautiful - multi coloured - and each strand gleamed with the name of one of the families present.

The objective of the game was to cut the strand with your family name on it, without causing any other strand to break or move. When spider called "GO", everyone began ... and the hall was soon a mess of broken web, littering the floor and lying about on the seats. "it's impossible," adults and children cried, as, one by one, each family failed to get its strand loose - or find its strand, because it had already been destroyed. "The strands are so linked, we can't cut one loose without hurting so many around."

When the hub-hub had subsided somewhat, people turned to the stage ... and lo ... ! Next to the spider stood William Wizard, in his tall hat and flowing sky-blue robes. The silence grew more solid. All eyes were on the wizard, Everyone was waiting for him to speak.

"You have just answered the question some of you have asked on Facebook ..." he began, to loud gasps and some chuckles. It is funny, after all, hearing a wizard mention Facebook.

"You've asked on Facebook why 2020 is proving to be such a difficult year. You've just played out the reason. Everyone on earth is connected. You can't pull yourself apart from other human beings, or other species. See the crumbling mess that happens when you try to do so. Someone in a far-away country caused all of us to fear a virus. And, without knowing or intending it, each one of us causes fear for several species of animals ... each day. We kill animals for fun. We pollute the land, the water, the air ... and even space. We cut down trees. We've created a mess. We need to clean up."

The spider and the wizard vanished.

The Principal called, "Well, didn't you hear what the man said? Clean up!"

Everyone -- parents, grandparents, teachers, kids, Principal, Principal's niece ... pitched in to clean up the mess. The gleaming strands of web were carefully folded, to be preserved as decorations for the next event. "Most of the names can still be read," the Principal's niece remarked, happily.

In a few minutes, the hall was spotless. Now if only people would pitch in and clean up the earth, too, maybe they wouldn't need reminders that we're all connected and our actions affect the whole of humanity!