Question from a non-physics person

A common question is posed when trying to find solutions to the problem
of near light speed travel (assuming we had knowledge to produce such
speeds): "How does your ship avoid getting pulverized by tiny grains in
space that would impact your ship with enormous energy?"

>>From what I understand as your ship approaches the speed of light, its
mass would also increase to near infinite. These tiny objects would
not have enormous amounts of energy; the ship would, so the ship would
be the one doing the pulverizing.

There are everyday examples of this: Tornados can accelerate common hay
or dried grass to speeds of 300 mph, increasing their mass, and drive
them right through trees and telephone poles. If you accelerated a
tree or telephone pole to 300 mph, and shot it through a field of
hay, it would mow down the hay, not split into a thousand pieces.

So why do I continuously see this question posed as a problem of near
light speed travel? I understand larger objects that have mass more
equal to the near-light speed ship (comet, planet, etc.) would be a
danger, but not tiny particles. What am I not taking into
consideration? Thanks

.

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