Revisiting Charlotte’s Web: Life Lessons From a Grey Spider.

_{I read Charlotte’s Web to my two-year-old and it changed the way I looked at my career.}

We decided to read chapter books to my toddler for our sanity. Maybe it was my thesis that “Little Blue Truck” and the big strong toad were in a relationship that pushed my husband and I to expand our reading selection. Hey, the evidence is in the extended series. The toad winks at the Little Blue Truck on the very first page in the very first book. Then they attend a Halloween party together. Finally, they pair up to run a Christmas tree lot. If you think about it for too long, as I certainly have, then Little Blue Truck series reads like a Hallmark movie.

Any way… I digress. We started on chapter books because both my husband and I were hungry for complex narrative. Two chapter books in, I saw Charlotte’s Web at the library and knew that was our next pick.

Taking Charlotte’s Web home and cracking it open was like catching up with an old friend. I anticipated certain scenes that stuck out from childhood. Templeton and his rotten egg. Templeton retrieving the scraps of words from the dump… mostly memories of Templeton. Rodents fascinated me as a kid.

Something I didn’t think to anticipate? Charlotte’s take on writing! She was there on her web, doling out not-so-subtle writing advice, from the pages of one of my favorite childhood books. Storytime took discipline. She inspired me but I tried to keep interruptions to a minimum. I did not take notes. Now that Charlotte’s Web is still inspiring me, I’m sharing some of the thing’s I learned.

1. The parable of the fish caught in a web
   • Charlotte tells Wilbur about her cousin who caught a fish in her web. Instead of cutting the fish free, she battled it, risking her life, wrapping it in thread until it couldn’t move. When the time was right, she ate it. When you get an opportunity, you go for it. You dash in and out. You take some whacks to the head. When the battles over you wait until the time is right before setting upon it and sucking it dry. Was that too dark? Well, that’s life, baby. You gotta eat.
2. “Never hurry and never worry!”
   • As a naturally anxious person, I don’t take to this advice easily but it works. I do my best work when I’m relaxed. Sure, there’s a deadline. Sure, there’s a lot of research to do. Sure, I’ve never done this kind of project before. And yet, if I take action, moving slowly and surely through the steps, I can complete any project. Even when Wilbur’s life was on the line, Charlotte took on her projects with a cool head. I don’t have the life of an adorable and loyal friend in my hands. I can work with a cool head too.
3. “If I can fool a bug… I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs.”
   • We think we’re so smart but do what do we know compared to the knowledge inside the tiny head of a honeybee or a housefly? All the reading in the world won’t give us access to those mysterious insect thoughts. If I accept the fact that I am but a human and so are my readers, then I can accept that there’s a lot to learn. Isn’t life more interesting when you accept that you’ll always be learning?
4. “What’s a life anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die…By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”
   • My career has always followed a creative path. Painting and writing. When I tell people that I’m in either career they make comparisons to the most successful professionals in that industry. That’s… humbling. My chances of becoming the next John Grisham are pretty darn low. But if I look at it from Charlotte’s perspective, my position isn’t so bad. I’ll keep working on my web. I’ll eat some bugs. I’ll help people when I can. Life is short. The only thing that can really lift us up throughout it is helping others, no matter how beautiful the webs we weave may be.

Bonus lesson from Templeton: “Good things come to those who find it and shove it in their mouth!”

There’s a reason Templeton inspired both shock and love in me as a child. I was a bit of a goody-two-shoes and always feared my greedy hedonistic side. Now that I’m an adult, I’ve learned that rats have something to teach us, after all. When you get the chance to scavenge a fairground at night and gorge yourself, do it. Life it too short to never partake in a rat holiday.

There you have it. A few lessons from a everyone’s favorite grey spider and one from a rascally rat. If you have a chance, you should go ahead and reread this childhood classic. You don’t have to read it to a kid. Read it to yourself. It just might teach you something about “this lovely world, these precious days…”