Some people instantly get the idea of a snail party, and there are people – myself until a few months ago – who don’t. There is no point in my life at which I would have imagined attending a snail party, let along co-hosting and taking responsibility for preparing much of the food.

What do you cook for a snail party?

In my case, a basket of mandarin oranges,   two light thin-crust pizzas – one mascarpone, prosciutto and fig sauce, the other baby peas,  mascarpone, cheese, and pesto with sprinkled parmesan.

Maria is making some small veggie quiches and offering dark chocolate drops, and pinwheels with hummus and vegetables. No escargot.

The Snail Party is easy to chuckle about, but I stopped laughing a while back. It is a mix of things for Maria and me, all of them important.

A celebration of our love and the pleasure we take in life.

We don’t dwell on it, but both of us are keenly aware that our time together is short in the scheme of things. We both want to use it well. For much of my life, I didn’t know how to cherish what I have, now I know how important that is to do.

The party is also a nod to the centrality of nature and animals in our lives. The snail is one of the oldest known creatures on the earth.

We are both surprised at the fun we are having putting our fish tank together. Also, a bringing together of five or six unusually sensitive and warm people, the kind of people who say, when invited to a snail party, “sure, of course, I’ll come.’

Almost every morning and once or twice at night, we come together and gather around the fish tank, which I’ve re-designed and re-populated after we lost our three goldfish this week. I love doing this and have been working hard at it.

I even made some tank sculptures out of rocks from the pasture.

I needed more explaining myself. I sniggered a bit about the party, but it matters to Maria and me. I’m learning that.

I love Maria’s passion for life; it is infectious and has even spread to a wary and closed up stiff like myself. The snails are fascinating; it is a marvel how they move, maneuver, hear and see.

They also form a valuable part of a fish tank’s eco-system, the prowl day and night for algae and waste. The thing is, they are interesting. Maria knows everything there is to know about them.

My self-appointed role tonight is to give Maria space and freedom to share what she has learned with her friends; I’ll be ferrying the finger food and listening in from time to time. I’m the only man coming to the party, and I think men can sometimes smother a party.

This is an important party I am realizing. I hope we can laugh at it a bit, but I think it is precisely the kind of party the world needs to have – for the snails, for the birds, for the fish, for the donkeys and dogs and animals of the world, all in danger.

And we are taking it seriously, thinking about what we will say, serve and do.

Some biologists believe that snails are among the best-equipped creatures on the earth to thrive in and survive climate change. One famous researcher predicts that snails and many kinds of insects will rule the planet in a few thousand years.

I think we’ll stick to the snails for tonight at our party. The implications are obvious enough. I’ve got about five hours of cooking ahead of me.

I am following my new motto: Listen, Learn, Support, Change, and Encourage — my first Snail Party. I can’t wait to see what the world has in store for me next.