August 24, 2008

Slither

Daughter: I almost stepped on a snake today.
Me: A snake?
Daughter: Yeah, right as I was getting into the Buick. It scared the hell outta me. That's all I thought about for a good half hour afterward.
Me: (laughing) I keep seeing snakes too.
Daughter: I know what you're going to say. They're a symbol of change, transformation, blah, blah, blah.
Me: Well, my friends say that. But they're mostly talking about dream snakes.
Daughter: This snake was in real life.
Me: I don't like change.
Daughter: They don't have legs!
Me: We're both going through big changes in our lives.
Daughter: Yeah.
Me: What's wrong with not having legs?
Daughter: It's creepy and weird.

10 comments:

Lisa said...

your daughter and I dislike snakes for precisely the same reason.

They have no legs, yet they move really freaking fast.

ScienceWoman said...

I'm totally with your daughter (and lisa) on this one. Why don't you like snakes?

jaypeeweb said...

just a not to say how much I appreciate your photography and that Ifinf it peaceful and thought provoking..Thanks...does your email work?

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I love snakes--as long as they aren't deadly poisonous and biting me.

But they still startle and scare me in the phenomenal world as well as the dream world.

Stratoz said...

I nearly stepped on a snake the other day... it also had no legs and I was not dreaming.

jo(e) said...

jaypeeweb: Thanks. And yes, the email in my profile should work, although sometimes stuff goes accidentally into the spam folder.

Mary: I think that's the thing. I like snakes when I know they are there. But they do often startle me when I don't expect to see one. The fact that they don't have legs doesn't bother me at all.

ccw said...

I had never thought about the "no legs" but after reading this your daughter is right; it's creepy and weird.

I agree with you that snakes in general do not scare me but one appearing in the yard makes me run very quickly.

jaysonwithaY said...

If they had legs they could crawl over your skin and scratch you with their claws. I watched a scared lizard crawl up my dad's leg once. Never seen a snake do that! I like the feeling I get 2 seconds after spotting a snake, realizing it is there and I am safely here. But that first second is always a surprise.

KM said...

Grief, Jo(e): I had a dodgy dream about snakes last night... huge, thick, heavy constrictor snakes. They're one big muscle, and all they do is consume!

Well, I'm taking it as advice on what not to be. Blend that with your "change" interpretation and I have myself a pretty good self-assessment. :)

Leslee said...

I hope to have conversations like this with my daughter someday. Not so much about the snakes, but just a general adult-like conversations. They're not so much adult-like yet. But she's 8, she's got a year or two.