hello, dinner

i ate a lobster for the first time ever last week. it seems like such a weird thing when your dinner is exactly one other creature. i felt bad that i hadn't met the lobster before the whole slaughter thing. i would have said, "nice to meet you, Lobster. i'm julie. i'm going to be eating you today." and then i would have reached out to shake hands, and he probably would have pinched me, and i would have gotten angry and felt a little less guilty about eating him.*

i mean, it's one thing that we're eating other sentient beings. i'm always a little uneasy with meat and seafood, feeling a little presumptuous and grossed out when i cook or eat it, but it's a different kind of interaction when you are just dealing with pieces of an animal - like when you're having beef or chicken - or when you've got a whole great big family of them - like shrimp or scallops. but it's somehow strangely intimate to sit down, one on one, with another animal with the intention of making it your meal.


*[ed. note: if you're wondering why i assume my lobster was a man, it's because we ladies have to stick together and i would never eat one of my sistahs.]