Golden Orb Spiders

My daughter Mary called today while she was eating lunch in the butterfly garden at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. She works there and was enjoying watching the Atala butterflies dance over the flowers. She was equally enthralled with the Golden Orb spiders, which also reside in the garden and make complex golden webs high up in the trees. Not knowing much about these spiders, which she said are as big as tennis balls, I looked them up on the internet. Tucked into all the detail about the genus and species was an little comment that a piece of cloth, the only one of its kind, had been woven from the golden silk of a million spiders and was recently donated to the American Museum of Natural History. The picture of the beautifully woven fabric cannot possibly do justice to what must be the most amazing piece of textile ever made. What a wonderful dream someone must have woken up from that inspired the incredible amount of perseverance to see this priceless golden fabric come to reality. Would that all our best and daring dreams inspire such amazing works!