Consume: (v) to eat, drink, or ingest food or drink
Last night, in the spirit of the holidays and expressing great affection, one of my sons made me a huge shrimp cocktail and regally paraded it to the table and set it down in front of me as if I were Henry VIII himself.
It was a beautiful sight. It took time to put together. It was gorgeous (if can bestow such a title upon impaled shrimp).
Yet less than ten minutes later it was consumed. The little fellows had departed, and all that was left behind were little tiny pieces of tail.
I was not sad. Matter of fact, I was quite satisfied with the offering and how it landed deep within my innards.
But it was gone.
I began to look around to see if there were friends of the shrimp which might be available for further consuming.
There were.
I soon forgot the sacrifice of the initial “little swimmers,” as I consumed more and more of their family members.
I felt no guilt whatsoever at destroying a whole generation of crustacea. Appalling.
Certainly to them, I must seem a monster, invading their safe place in the bay, lodging right next door to their pals, the scallops.
But one thing was sure–after my second, and even third, pursuit…
They were gone.
Consumed.
The only thing I took from that experience is that even though shrimp probably do not have souls (at least I hope not), I do have to be careful not to consume people–human brothers and sisters–who do possess such a gift from God.
We are all consumers.
But every once in a while, we need to realize what we’re consuming–and try to put a little back into the sea.
(click the elephant to see what he’s reading!)
Words from Dic(tionary) 