Soft-Shell Crabs Remind Us How the World Is Wrong About Softness

"Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:2 NABRE

Soft-shell crabs

Soft-shell crabs are tasty.

If you haven’t heard of them, they’re different from hardshell crabs. You eat the entire crab without removing any shell.

Soft-shell crabs “must be captured and consumed during their ‘pre-molt stage’…Selling soft-shell crabs is a profitable enterprise. Online markets sell these animals for $3.50 to $10 per unit, and restaurants have been known to charge $75 or more for a single animal.” (Muller, Faunalytics)

My dad laughed that as kids, when visiting a seafood diner, my brother and I would devour soft-shell crabs with ketchup like they were just French fries.

It's funny because they’re way pricer than French fries!

"Value" may go unseen

I heard a story about fishermen who unwittingly tossed off of their boat a bunch of soft-shell crabs because they thought there was something wrong with them. They didn’t realize that not only was there nothing “wrong” with them, they were extremely more valuable than the “regular” crabs.

How often does this happen? Something that at first glance seems defective or valueless, is actually the complete opposite…

Especially if, like a soft-shell crab, it’s something soft, fragile, delicate, vulnerable.

Like an abandoned old house. Or a one-eyed dog. Or an elderly person. Or an unborn child.

The world may dismiss the cloistered nun as having no “practical” value, but the value of her prayers cannot be fathomed.

The preciousness of softness

I am reminded of the Little Flower.

Little.

Flower.

Whatever seafood you might like, may we all remember the one Creator of the Seas and pray He gives us soft hearts.

For like soft-shell crabs, they are more precious because they are soft.

“I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” —Ezekiel 36:26 NABRE

A similar reflection: Kids, Cardiology, & the Sacred Heart

Reference

Muller, S. Marek. “Insights From the Soft-Shell Crab Industry.” Faunalytics, February 27, 2024. https://faunalytics.org/insights-from-the-soft-shell-crab-industry/.