Peripheral visions

It was probably more to do with peripheral vision and less to do with having a 6th sense that I spotted the spider. It was one of those daddy-long-legs spiders - all spindly limbs and no body - just inches away from my shoulder. I watched it gracefully abseil from an invisible rope and pick its way across the desk, before diving to ground in the dark knee recess underneath.

I think it’s likely that we all have a 6th sense, in the meaning of a non sight-related ‘peripheral vision’. There’s nothing remotely spooky or mystical about the kind of 6th sense I’m describing; I certainly don’t mean it in the same way that ghost hunters or psychics might. I’m speculating that back at the beginning of human times this could have been the added extra that kept our ancestors safe from predators, which led them to fresh water or to fertile land. Perhaps the ability further evolved alongside the development of language into the earliest forms of politics, strategic planning, trade and bartering.

I suppose you might define it as the ability to spot patterns or evidence – of climate, of mood, of prices, of group dynamics – and add that to the indefinable-but-persuasive feelings of direction, foreboding, opportunity or threat. It’s there to keep us safe and to protect us from the threats that our subconscious antennae have detected well in advance of our cumbersome, logical, proof-seeking brains.

We ignore these primitive feelings at our peril. And so for the last two weeks or so I have been beginning to act upon the signals that my 6th sense was sending me. Not about dodging dangling daddy-long-legs spiders (although I’m grateful for that!) but about something much closer to home, something I had begun to predict as likely without any concrete evidence. And today I got the confirmation.

The consequences of the issue are still sinking in and I will return to the actuality of it without being so vague in the next few days. In the meantime, just to thank my desk exploring spider for once again prompting my ancient self to keep the contemporary version alert.