A Snail Without A Home

When I was a child, one of my chores was to salt the slugs that made their way to our sidewalk after a rain. I couldn't look at them because of my fear and disgust so I'd salt them in a panic, not caring how much I wasted, and ran back in the house. Don't be such a little pansy, Michelle, my mother would say. And you didn't have to use so much salt. I haven't given thought to them in years -- they have receded in my imagination into a way of description, ie, I'm feeling sluggish, until a few months ago when a child I adore picked one up and told me that she thought it was a snail without a home. The slug sat in her tiny little hand, and for once I looked at it, not nearly as horrified as I thought, although I did have my eye on the nearby salt shaker just in case I should be called on for my former duties.

She played with the slug for a little while before returning it to the dirt. I had really looked at it for the first time, noticing how intricate it was, how small. The ones in my memory were huge and icky beyond belief; I'd have died before touching one. And in the interest of full disclosure, I did not touch this one. But I felt a little sorry for it, all the vulnerability it embodied. A snail without a home. Such sadness! The moment passed as they all do; the talk went to other things. Everyone washed their hands before dinner, but the slug had left an invisible trail over slime in my mind except that I realized that it didn't have to be slime; it could be a veil or a scrim. It could be beautiful if you didn't know what it was.

Michelle's Spell of the Day

"To gaze is to think." Salvador Dali

Cocktail Hour

Drinking book suggestion: The Last Days of Dead Celebrities Mitchell Fink

Benedictions and Maledictions

Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors for beating the Mavericks! I hate Dallas and am so glad they got beat in the first round -- ha! I once read somewhere that there were two times in your life you could do something really hard -- when you don't know you can't do it and when someone tells you that you can't do it. They aren't my beloved Pistons, but I'm still impressed. Congratulations!