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what sort of a person am i?
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what happens when you happen to cross paths with a snail along the road? do you

1) pick the grimey little thing up and dispose of it in a safer place ( e.g the bushes )

2) ignore it completely and think "boy am i glad i didn't step on the bugger" and then shudder at painful memories of previous snail-crushing incidents.

3) stamp on it with relish and grin as the shell disintegrates under your feet.


i belong to 1) . i'm not trying to say i'm a total humanitarian or a martyr, and honestly, i think i do so mostly because i do not want to face the guilt that haunts me, knowing that by leaving the ignorant mollusc there, chances are they'll become a wet debris of slime and shattered shell in no time.

today, i almost became 2). i became so overwhelmed by shame that i retraced my steps ten minutes after i had left the site, only to find her/him( yes, snails are NOT asexual creatures like amoebas ) still on the same spot. i eased away its hold on the ground and flung it gently into the shrubbery.

i didn't feel at any more peace at all, knowing very well it'll attempt to escape its haven again. maybe snails like living dangerously to make up for their utterly dull lifes.

or maybe, like the humanified creatures in Murakami's novels, they just want to exit their cold-blooded lifes with a bang.

Murakami.. i've been reading him alot. If the translated texts are already so compelling, then the original japanese texts can only be better.