We went to the northwest and camped this past July. Banana slugs were in abundance. Gruesome they are, but a marvel of engineering from the Creator's point of view. Still, slugs beg a question, spiritual in nature:
Why? Why so slimy, and so vulnerable? Why so ugly? Someday I will ask God, if I remember it among the many inquiries I would like to make when I meet my Maker.Because I have stepped on many a slug in my garden, where they are unwelcome, I worry about their spiritual significance. What on God's green earth puzzles you? Write a comment, and let me know.
Here is my query to my Lord. It is my shortest poem:
Elegy for a slug
Why didn’t God
throw him a shell?
Why didn’t God
throw him a shell?
Chris Alba (c) 2009
12 comments:
Hello and thank you for coming by my blog. Some of us have been blogging together for years and have traveled great distances to meet. Please feel free to jump right in the mix.
LOVE Elegy for a slug!
Well, you short poem is perfect. All the many questions to ask God. When you step on a slug, what kind of shoes are you wearing?
The answer to Madison's question is as brief as the poem:
Never barefoot!
I'm posting a link to your blog today. You have a great story and I'd like the others to meet you. I see some already have!
Love this! I got here via Tall Kay. My question? Mosquitoes...what's the point?
Exactly, why not give him a shell to protect him? Maybe to teach us that we do not need shells as we should all be comfortable in our own skin. Great post.
Nice post, I am another who got here via Tall Kay. You need to check out our wonderful Shadow at
http://gsp-shadow.blogspot.com/
My question would be the Wasp, they are mean with no purpose that I can understand in nature.
Okay, God, we're wondering about slimy slugs and pointy things like mosquitos and wasps: What's the point, as Gin says? Did they live in the Garden of Eden?
i loved your elegy for the poor, vulnerable slug. i've got to see those banana slug i hear about so much before i leave the northwest. welcome to the blog world :)
why indeed... maybe he was impatient to start living, only to have missed the last part. his shell... then again, maybe he's perfect just the way he is...
A shell is actually buried under the slug's mantle. But unlike the familiar spiraling shells of snails, this one is only a thin, fragile membrane of calcium carbonate that is barely noticeable. It hardly deserves to be called a shell.
But the shell leaves a clue that slugs evolved from shell-bearing snails. The slug's shell is a vestige of a distant past. It is a perfect example for Darwin's exquisite logic: "Rudimentary organs may be compared with the letters in a word, still retained in the spelling, but become useless in the pronunciation, but which serve as a clue in seeking for its derivation. On the view of descent with modification, we may conclude that the existence of organs in a rudimentary, imperfect, and useless condition, or quite aborted, far from presenting a strange difficulty, as they assuredly do on the ordinary doctrine of creation, might even have been anticipated, and can be accounted for by the laws of inheritance."
Most shells are used to keep animals from drying out and not to protect the soft body within. But the slug has a lot of mucus that keeps its body moist.
See how magical nature is?
Maybe Slug shed his shell in search of summer sun and gentle wind. Shell-less and free, willing to brave the world with wide open eyes, lightened load and freshness of heart. Brave little Slug...
Post a Comment