Hope is Like Steamed Crabs - Fresh

Like all fresh seafood, live crabs have a very short time window before they must be cooked and eaten. Yes, there are some “tricks of the trade” that will help them live, stay fresh longer. But the sand in the hourglass starts running when they’re caught, and there is nothing that you can do to stop it.

Shrimp and softshell crabs can be frozen for shipping and extended storage. Sardines can be canned. Fish can be frozen or salted to preserve it. But with hard crabs, there are no such options.

When we bought live hard crabs, they were loaded into our cooler one at a time so we could cautiously inspect each and every one. We always carefully looked to make sure that each one was “dancing” or “kicking.” If they didn’t move, they were removed and thrown into the trash. And then when we transferred them into the pot for cooking, they again had to be moving. If they didn’t move, my dad would inspect it carefully before returning it to the pot or throwing it away.

Bad seafood is nothing to fool around with. The side effects of eating spoiled seafood can include itching, rash, headache, rapid or irregular heartbeat, dizziness, sweating, burning of the mouth and throat, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps. Hardly worth the price of a single crab, or two.

Hope, like live hard crabs, has a definite shelf life. Left alone and not cared for, hope will quickly get stale, die, and even start to stink. Hope requires care and attention. It needs to be properly prepared and then enjoyed.

We don’t need hope once a month, or even once a week. We need hope daily, if not more frequently.

Keep looking and searching for fresh hope.