i DID thank its spirit

Online again, at home!! Thanks, AOL. It is slow. SLOW!! Fastness comes Friday.

My summer vacation, by little Zach:

Some of you with V-diets (vegetarian, vegan, etc) have expressed that you
would happily eat an animal if given the chance to hunt, kill, and cook it yourself. WELL TODAY I SIEZED THAT OPPORTUNITY!!!

I went to the Oregon coast with Portland's cutest gay couple, who live across the parking lot (among other people). Picnic. Sun. Ocean.

And sand castles: I dug a hole down to the water table, lined the rim with shell shards and dead crab claws, then added sand tentacles and big googly eyes, with the words: "I WANT YOUR SOUL"

The surf was full of ALIVE STUFF, very different from any Californian ocean I've been in.

I CAUGHT A CRAB AND TOOK IT HOME AND ATE IT with a garlic-butter sauce. (I was going to try a whiskey-butter sauce, but I chickened out.)

I used a plastic bucket. It took several tries, the crab was evasive, and there was something of a chase: it disappeared when I ran to grab the bucket.

Once I realized I was going to kidnap the crab and deliver it to oblivion, I really felt like our fates had become connected, like a tangible cord spanned us in the spirit world, and in our minds. The crab knew what was going to happen, I'm sure.

It is WEIRD killing something so large + twitching for the purpose of being eaten, especially when it awaits execution inside a cold pot, alongside ample supplies of bread, rice, oil, eggs, box granola.

The experience was not liberating, it was sad.

Even so, I will gladly do it again. Yes, it was haunting to go from living crab to vacant shells and discarded entrails in 1 hour, but I'd be a liar if I said the flavor wasn't worth it. IT WAS.

I think the world would be a better place if every meat eater had to kill their own meal at some time in their life. If you're a city boy like me and haven't tried it, then I recommend doing it. I was impressed by the gravity of the situation.

I think this will have an effect on my protein choices in the days to come. Now I can imagine myself as the butcher next time I reach for a cheeseburger.