Snail
Snail rested snugly in its shell. The sun warmed its house
and slowly thawed out the night's winter chill. Snails can hibernate in their
shells for long periods of time, especially when climate conditions are tough.
But Snail was extremely curios and tended to stick its body out of its shell,
while its other snail friends slept away, protecting themselves from the harsh
conditions. Snail just couldn't resist filling its senses with the outside
world, exploring and learning about its surroundings.
Maybe it's because Snail was no ordinary snail. You see,
snails can't really see that well, mostly shades of light and dark. But Snail
could see clearly and in color too. They
can't hear either. But Snail could hear and was fascinated by the sounds of
nature and especially by human language. When put together with the fact that
snails naturally have a great sense of smell and touch, all this made Snail
very special indeed. I guess you can say that Snail was a kind of super snail
with keen senses and insights.
"Insights?" you may ask yourself. "What do insights have to do with this
creature?"
Well, Snail
was a perpetual wonderer and wanderer. Snail liked learning, investigating and
asking questions and especially about human nature. Human nature fascinated and
perplexed Snail.
Interestingly snails are hermaphrodites, which means they
have both male and female reproductive organs and they produce both eggs and
sperms. So you, dear reader, are welcome to choose the gender of Snail in this
story if you want to.
It was a bright
lovely morning. The sky was clear blue and the air crisp and clear as Snail's
thoughts. Snail slowly inhaled fresh
cool air, looked at the sky, and slowly exhaled air up to the sky. But just as
weather changes so did Snail's mood. In the distance, Snail heard thundering
rocks exploding into fire and giant turtles rolling in its direction spitting
fire from their mouths. This calamity was going on in the past few weeks. This
greatly disturbed and perplexed Snail. Once in a while Snail could see men with
long black sticks that made noise and killed other men. The sky was full of
giant birds that dropped rocks that exploded in a blaze of fire, destroying
land and inhabitants. These forms of destruction were referred to by kids in
the neighborhood as "bombs", "tanks", "guns" and
"planes", as they staged mock fights.
"What a strange
animal humans are," Snail thought to itself.
"I can't grasp why they kill each other. If they could
just see that living peacefully is much more simple and fun."
Snails may be slow but they are one of the oldest living
creatures on the planet; they've been around for 500 million years! And Snail's
forefathers have seen how humans have been gradually destroying the world and
often times themselves.
"Humans believe they are the supreme crown of
biological evolution," said a passing ant to Snail one day.
"Yes, I agree with that," said Snail. "And
they are playing out that role of supreme beings in what they call modern
civilization really well. But nature has laws of its own and because humans are
part of nature I hope they relearn to live with nature."
"Yes, I hope so too," said the passing ant and
hurried off to join its mates.
At first Snail didn't
understand human language and yearned to understand it. So Snail secretly
attended school near the boys' orphanage. Every morning Snail would sneak up on
the high window ledge, where no one could see it. Snail attended grades 1 to 7
and could now understand what was being said in the classroom. Snail was proud
as it thought it did pretty well in school.
In geography class, Snail noticed something that perplexed
it. Humans had maps with lines designating borders. These boundaries bound and
defined what humans called countries. Wars were being fought on some of these
borders. Some of these borders had high walls or fences to keep others out.
While some borders were meant to keep others in and escape was punishable.
Snail was saddened.
Snail thought about its own small world in which snails
don't reside in just one location all the time and tend to make their home
anywhere since they carry it on their back. Snails are loners but they often
come into contact with each other due to the feeding grounds where they find
plenty for all of them to share. They aren’t aggressive in nature towards each
other and tend to live their own existence without bothering each other.
Snail thought to itself that the wind is oblivious to human
borders, blowing free. So is the sun,
with its shining sunrays. Humans unlike
the wind weren't really free.
Snail was 8 years old, an old age in snail terms. Snail was
considered by other snails as a wise elder. In fact, Snail was considered the
only expert on the subject of humans amongst the snails in the area. Snail
often shared knowledge on humans with other snails and found teaching enjoyable.
Snail taught itself to write using snail slime as it
slithered. Snails slither on a protective slime they excrete. The slime allows
them to move on any type of surface in any terrain without being injured.
Imagine yourself being able to walk barefoot on glass or sharp rocks without
hurting your feet.
Snail couldn't speak though. If it could, Snail would surely
ask those pressing question that bothered it. Why do humans wage war and live
in hatred? Why couldn't humans just live in peace? Snail dreamt of asking these
questions and telling humans what it thought.
"What could there be if humans got their act
together?" Snail asked the wind.
"Perhaps a better life; certainly a better world,"
Snail heard the wind answer.
Shell Sliding
"Try saying
'Shell Sliding' really fast 10 times."--- Snail J Snail was perfectly fine
with the slow mosey pace it got around with but was intrigued by speed"I
wonder what it would be like to fly through the air at screeching speeds like
the birds," Snail thought to itself.
The first time Snail took a plunge from a foot high leaf to
the ground was a scary and painful experience as ever. Snail curled up as
tightly as it could in its shell, while still holding on to the leaf and slowly
let go of its sticky hold on the leaf. The letting go part was hard as ever and
it took Snail about an hour just to bring itself to let go of its hold on the
leaf's edge and free fall to the ground.
"Why am I
doing this?" Snail asked itself a hundred times. And really couldn’t find
a reasonable answer.
The moment Snail let go, against all reason, it slid of the
leaf and started free falling to the ground. Snail suddenly felt a rush of
freedom. Its heart racing, weightless, Snail plunged to the ground landing on a
soft spot of leaves, exactly as planned. But then things went wrong as it
continued to role battering itself hard on a rock and finally stopped. Snail's
shell cracked and it could feel the pain as it pierced through its body. Snail
felt dizzy, was injured and very vulnerable. And with the last ounces of energy
left in it, slid under a few leaves for cover and passed out.
Night passed and when Snail awoke it suddenly remembered
what had happened as pain shot up its body. It was painful to move, painful to
breathe. But Snail had a smile on its face.
"I did it," Snail though to itself. "I
actually did it."
Snail noticed the crack in its shell wasn't too bad and with
plenty of rest and a healthy diet, including munching on limestone with its
rich source of calcium, Snail's shell eventually mended, leaving a small scar.
Snail continued to
experiment in what it called "Shell Sliding" with different types of
plants. Snail still feared failing and getting hurt, but it knew that it could
control fear by becoming friends with it and accepting it as part of its
being. Snail turned each failure into
valuable lessons and pain into wisdom.
Snail preferred broad leaf plants, in which it could glide
from leaf to leaf in a succession of free falls. Taking into consideration
parameters like wind angles, height, speed and the landing ground, which had to
be soft with no hard objects around. In time Snail became a master at
"Shell Sliding".
Other snails looked on with admiration but thought Snail was
crazy. Snail would choose a slippery leaf, angle itself accordingly, make sure
the ground was soft enough below and let itself role. Gravity took care of the
rest as Snail tumbled down, screeching at high speeds never known to snails. A
whole new dimension opened up.
Boy
Snail knew not all humans were busying themselves fighting
each other. Take the Boy from the orphanage next to the yard. Snail saw how Boy
gave milk and took care of the cat in the yard. Once Boy even picked Snail up,
whispered kind words and then gently returned Snail to the leaf it was on. He was
different from most of the other boys, who sometimes squished some of Snail's
friends just for the fun of it.
Snail came to learn that Boy like many other orphans had
lost his family in the war. No one ever visited Boy who spent most of his free
time wandering and dreaming in the large back yard behind the orphanage.
Boy was skinny and his clothes were often dirty and had
holes in them. Boy's words were soft spoken and gentle like a soothing breeze.
There were times of despair when the orphans would fight over
a sweet candy, or when some other orphans made fun of Boy. Snail could see Boy
crying to himself. But no matter what the situation was you couldn't be
mistaken that Boy was a bright shining star in the baffling crazy world of
humans. Boy shone so brightly like he had the sun in his heart. It was as if
Boy held a secret to life that others somehow missed. It was so powerful that
when looking at Boy you'd forget the clamor that was going around. It was to
Snail the best show in town and Snail wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Snail was set out to find what turned this once raging boy
into a shining star.
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