another nocturnal adventure...

Snails are such night owls, and so am I. And they meander, as I. And most importantly, while you read this, envision a snail shell. It starts at a point and spirals out. No need to ask, "What's the point?" I started at one when I typed "snails," and it is all expansion from there.

Back to last night. Riding my bike all over Portland with friend, Chris Carlsson (author of "Nowtopia," "Critical Mass," and other books about radical social change), I absorbed the full moonlight and let it guide me home. Without my bike lights, I was a lucky pedaler to have such a clear and glowing path. We discussed the challenges of public spaces and privatization. How newly built shining boxy structures with overly-manicured cement and plant layouts will one day thrive with the decay and recovery that occurs with all places and spaces. People and plants will reclaim a new order out of the persistence of life and death.

We mused about relationships, about serial monogamy and the joy and challenges of love and partnership. Acknowledging the differences between males and females, I only recently realized how differently we think and behave. A blessing and a curse to wake up and smell the pheromones. It isn't that I didn't get attraction and the obvious, but the way we respond to the opposite sex and some of the sociobiological theories newly printed are fascinating. If you are curious, check out UnderstandingMen.com (PAX programs) and the book, "Sperm are From Men. Eggs are From Women," by Joe Quirk. Angles that aim to stir the pot of peace and frustration yet more. I can no longer assume that a man is going to get it, or vice versa. It is a conscious choice to collaborate and accept the differences. Now to wake out of my Sleeping Beauty Cinderella stupor. I still hope for something more "meaningful" from an intimate, sexual relationship than fixating on the size and reactivity of my amygdala.

Snails have it all!! As Hermaphrodites- they really do have it all. And the love-making lasting 4-12 hours.... Now that makes for a grand show of reciprocal affection. Do you know about Professor Ronald Chase at McGill University in Canada? You must. I wrote to him a few times about his research and my love of all things sex in the snail. I am not sure if my last email missed him, or if my interest in feeding my snails colorful foods to attempt to create rainbowrific shells caused him to recoil and rethink my integrity. No matter, I encourage you to Google "Prof Ronald Chase-home page." You will see how Cupid may have been born from snail gazers, and why again, snails are leaders of our time with their massive neurons.

Can you smell the Calcium! I swear there is something about snails, something about their Calcium and slime that will benefit human reproductive health. I feel it and have felt it for a few years now. Just seeing Dr. Chase's mention of the mucus as a means to secure reproduction for the dueling swords, it all clicks. That mucus really sticks, and all that Calcium. Oh sure, skeletons seem like the obvious connection. Bones need fortification. But an artist with no real scientific education like myself, why would you doubt my hypothesis? It is in the peptides!! Reproductive human health will receive a boost once we figure it out in about 12 and half years. Please, sooner than that. Molluscan mucus has some vital healing, generative force. Once we get to eating all these garden mollusks (not all, remember, balance) we will need to skim the vital slime for creative scientific purpose.

And that is where I conclude: science, art, health, environment. Do you have a snail story to share? Any sluglore? Sling it!