Forging Kinship with the Worlds Around Us
In an ecological creative writing class, students get up close to the shells of pteropods, a whimsical sea snail under threat.
This exquisite shell is home of the Pteropoda or sea butterfly, a whimsical sea snail known for its winged feet, and an object we study in CRWR 321: Dancing in the Mud: Ecological Play and the Playful Imagination. These quixotic sea angels can be found in all the world’s oceans. They form part of a rich water ecosystem, avid devourers of zooplankton and delicious prey for the mackerel. As the oceans struggle to contain our glut, absorbing excess carbon dioxide and making their waters acidic, this delicate ecosystem is under threat. Made of calcium carbonate, these fragile shells are the first casualties and principal sirens of our excess, quick to dissolve in acidic waters and render their inhabitants homeless. This devastation happens far from our human senses, making it mysterious and alien to us. Devoid of its fleshy inhabitant, the pteropod shell is rendered delicate, an empty home spiraling in the ocean, a eulogy beckoning us. Might we inhabit it? Might we find kinship with the ocean and its inhabitants? CRWR 321 is concerned with just that: forging kinship with the worlds around us through art and narrative.