The Way of the Banana Slug

I am honoured to start my blog with this, my ode to the...



Banana slug? "Eeew gross!", may be your first reaction, but try to suspend the space before conclusions...

There are a few reasons why banana slugs have been on my mind and why I'm sharing my blog space with them. Perhaps my friend Minda's long standing affection for them has finally steeped into my consciousness. Or it may be due to another one of my friends, Gretchen Elsner, who is a fashion designer and pop up book maker. She's made a pop up banana slug book for adults (that I hope will soon be published!) reminiscentient of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, one of my favourite children's books.

Or maybe banana slugs are on my mind because I'm growing to see that they are an enigmatic BC treasure, veritably, a molluscan nudibranch cousin gone AWOL from the sea bed, and thriving out of water without a shell! Curiouser and curiouser... Some might say that I can relate to them because I've been something of a slug myself in finally getting around to writing. And yes, I too know something of aestivation...



But more than any of these things, like most elusive entities that lead us off the prescribed path, I think it's something else I'm picking up on the breeze. An enchanting something I possessed as a child, but later lost to the wind. The same mysterious something that caused students at the University of Santa Cruz to pick this "lowly" creature as their mascot (even though their chancellor resisted), and the citizens of California to almost vote it in as the state mollusc of California.

What kind of enchantment are banana slugs slowly weaving on those who take time to listen to the rustling leaves and watch them weave across the forest floor? What secret green language do they speak, and clandestine dances do they perform on moonlit nights?

From actors in method form, to poets, mystics and anyone inclined, we can all benefit by invoking the ancient, yet down-to-earth, spirit of the banana slug any time we feel wound up, out of touch with our bodies, or off centre.

I find myself wondering if perhaps the banana slug meditates on the universe or existence. Or even (and more likely), rather than getting caught up in their minds the way we do, our glossy golden friends may regularly be closer to angelic bliss or a nirvana-like state than most of us.

Now, before you start thinking I popped some pills before writing this blog, consider that the neurotransmitters (i.e. serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin) that bring to us the kinds of elated states we have traditionally thought to be the privilege of Homo sapiens have actually trickled down the evolutionary chain to us from our more "primitive" and "animalistic" ancestors. (A more reasonable trickle down theory in many ways than economic variants.) For example, take dopamine, linked to sexual desire and feelings of pleasure:

The catecholamine dopamine is present in both the central nervous system and in the peripheral tissues of molluscs, where it is involved in regulating reproduction.
(Mukai, Kiehn and Saleuddin. 2004)

What? Well, the above quote means that dopamine is both in the neural and bodily tissues of mollucs, including our banana buddy. Well, do you think that when the hormones/neurochemicals that "regulate reproduction" kick into gear slugs feel nothing? Well if you ever witnesses slugs or snails mating you would have the answer—of course not! Dopamine and other hormonal and neurochemical substance are the law givers and task masters of animal cells. They squirt out, slugs feel. Just like us. So, the above slug meditation is not sooo far fetched.

The chemistry of pleasure, and I would argue, bliss, is necessary to survival. We may look different on the outside, and have structural differences inside, but when it comes to what is needed for survival and reproduction, biology is remarkably efficient. So, in spite of our outwardly differences, inwardly, we have many of the same master neurochemicals pumping within that govern bodily function and feeling—indicating we may experience similar states, like the elusive bliss.

To top it off, in spite of all of our "human" achievement in terms of civilization, we may have also forgotten a few things along the way that the slugs have not. If you were to really hang out for a while and compare the average leisure time of a banana slug with that of a typical human being, you may start to wonder about how far we've really come. And, when you're stuck in traffic or burning the midnight oil on a deadline, just think about them out in the woods hanging out or silently cavorting in the free moonlight.

Their quiet forest lifestyle is remarkably bodhisattvic. A reminder of what we've left behind. And, in many ways, maybe an indication of where we are going.

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