The trashcan obsessional

“An odd, random thought entered Joe’s mind.  Possibly it had emerged because of the discussion about Christ. ” ‘Worry,’ ” he said aloud, echoing the robot’s term.  “I think I know what you mean.  A strange thing happened to me, once, back on earth.  A very small thing.  I got down a cup from the cupboard, a cup I hardly ever used.  In it I found a spider, a dead spider; it had died because there was nothing for it to eat.  Obviously it had fallen into the cup and couldn’t get out.  But here’s the point.  It had woven a web, at the bottom of the cup.  As good as a web as it could weave under the circumstances.  When I found it — saw it dead in the cup, with its meager, hopeless web — I thought, It never had a chance.  No flies would ever have come along, even if it had waited forever.  It waited until it died.  It tried to make the best of the circumstances, but it was hopeless.  I always wondered, Did it know it was hopeless?  Did it weave the web knowing it was no use?” Joe Fenwright   The Galatic Pot-Healer Philip K. Dick