mouths of babes

[chelidon]

My son, who is six, absolutely loves seafood of all kinds. I've seen him devour an entire order of PEI mussels and an entire 1 1/2 lb lobster in one sitting. He especially loves lobster, both the actual taste, and the fun value in playing with one as he eats it. Shoot, it's the original happy meal, dinner *and* a toy.

Still, while he's played with live lobster, and eaten dead ones, he'd never had to go through the process of transforming the one into the other, and that can be pretty traumatic for a kid. Some folks won't ever eat lobster again after having had to boil one.

But one day a couple of weeks ago while I was out of town, my son was with my dad, and at the market he asked for live lobster, so live lobster it was. He's sitting in the kitchen, playing with the lobster while my dad heats the water. What's he going to do when it's time to boil the lobster? The water gets to proper temperature, my dad says so, and my son stops what he's doing, looks down and says (I am not making this up), "Hello, Mr. Lobster! It's time for you to die now so I can eat you."

Frickin' unsentimental Virgos, I swear :> That's my boy...

Comments

[anthologie.livejournal.com]

I loved playing with - and then eating - lobsters and have learned to keep my mouth shut around sensitive types who want to free the lobsters and put them back into the ocean.

I love meat. I love animals. I love the animals that become my meat. *shrug* I'm just glad to find others who aren't troubled by the full fun of lobster-time.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

hee hee. I love the way you put that. I'm sorry, I've never seen how being grim about your food is respectful. Gosh, if you're going to take the life of an animal, enjoy the precious, sacred gift it is giving you with full gusto, with gratitude, and enjoy it to the very utmost. To do otherwise seems to me to be not giving proper thanks. Of course, that's how I feel about life in general.

I just got done teaching a week-long path in Texas titled "The Pursuit of Desire: Mysteries of the Hunt" (which went wonderfully, BTW) -- from that work, one of the messages the sacred prey sends in the ancient conversation between predator and prey is, "my life is worth taking, and showing respect for."

Overharvesting is a problem with seafood, and I try to get mine from our local co-op, which won't buy except from sources which are know to use sustainable methods.