Speedy the Paragliding Snail

Blog, Seen Thru New Eyes | December 21, 2009

For a short while I took a job in a cubicle with only a small high window I couldn’t see out of. Nothing alive or natural around me. It drove me crazy. So I got a goldfish. I got a plant for the goldfish and with the plant, unexpectedly, came a small brown snail. As I  watched the goldfish I began to notice the snail. Up he would glide; up the side of the bowl. Then he would lengthen his foot and launch himself across the water upside down just under the water line, moving smoothly, with grace. Once in the middle of the bowl he would suddenly pull in his foot and glide gently down to the bottom like a version of a paraglider under water. Back over the gravel he went, to the side of the bowl, up, across the water,  and do it again. And again. And again. And again. He would rest for a while, begin another series. I called him Speedy, he was so very fast and active. I quite fell in love with a snail. When I called people on the phone I would describe what he was doing- he was an important part of the conversation. People would even ask me about him.  He had personality. Of course I don’t know for sure, but it certainly seemed that he was just expressing the joy of being alive, of movement. There was something about the way he let go and glided to the bottom that just seemed to emanate snail joy. Buffalo glide on ice. Bears and wolves slide down snowfields for the fun of it. Why not snails doing the equivalent in their environment? Being alive is a joy.

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