Mollusk eyes

Being someone who generally can't see the forest for the trees, can't see what's right in front of her, can't see her way clear, can't really see at night (rods and cones! they're bastards), I'm trying to find out what I'm missing by reading many books about seeing, including "How to Use Your Eyes," by James Elkins. At the very end of the book, plastered upon a discussion of the "true eyes" of mollusks, I found this:



Maybe I cannot see much but I can use Google, which led me to Professor Karlin of Bowling Green--he of the 1958 field study in Colorado that concludes that there is a "food chain relationship between land snails and aspens." I've lived among academicians (they're devils) and can bring you this insider information: that means snails eat aspens.

I'm trying really hard to turn this small coincidence into a finely-wrought observation about year-end, resolutions, saying what you mean lest you appear retarded, and the pleasures of serendipity. It's not working, but I thought I'd state for the record that that's what I'm up to if you're trying to reach me by phone, or email, smoke-signal, semaphore or telepathy. Sorry, I'm busy with mollusk eyes and stomachs.

Seriously hoping that 2009 can offer WAY more than this. . . for everyone.