This isn't about seafood really, unless somewhere in the world of omnivores there's a taste for hermit crab. You know, those squatters of crustacean society, the creature with no home of its own that ends up living in someone else's cast off carapace. Never quite cute enough to make it into a Disney movie, the hermit crabs of the world are to be found around the water cooler or in the Teachers' Lounge making a reputation for wit out of sarcasm. I contend that anyone can sound profound as long as they can do the word dance with a wry smile, but at base the material is bitter and founded on disappointment and anger.
I am, I admit it freely, a recovering hermit crab. I didn't like my job, but it was at least a familiar cage and even when it was uncomfortable there were benefits, such as my fellow sufferers. Getting pulled out of my shell has had a profound effect on my everyday life, not least transporting me 7,000 miles from home to a land far, far away. Being faced with something so far removed from my everyday made me a hermit crab without a shell, learning to swim in a strange part of the ocean. Dropping the shell has made me reassess the way I deal with the world. Is seeing the downside really an asset? It's too easy to fall into cliché here, but being smart without responsibility is the same as having 20-20 hindsight; not really useful, but apparently impressive.
That's the trouble with living in a shell. You can put up with the numbing effect of your daily frustration and take your revenge building a reputation for plain talking. But you don't get to explore much of the world. You do get to insulate yourself against at least some of the pain as you watch the same old actors wading through the same old mistakes. Perhaps the crustaceans of the world really do know what's going on and have opted out of the responsibility/blame cycle.
Here's the rub: will I build a new shell? Secretly do I long for my shell like an adolescent for his phone? There's the temptation to fall back into the cynical for the sake of cheap laughs. But for every knowing sneer there's a loss to be paid from a potential new experience. Being part of the solution means swimming in the unknown, which brings us back to the ocean and seafood.
If you don't want a shell, then you could, for example, swim with the prawns. Prawns have a far more three dimensional approach to the ocean. Rather than trudging along the seabed with the hermit crabs, prawns swim wild and free. The price for living on the edge is, unfortunately, prawns get eaten. But I bet they're happier than their cousins the hermit crabs, even if they don't have much of a reputation for witty repartee.
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