Spider-Roll World

When crabbers pull their pots from the water, they quickly identify the crabs that are about to molt. The color on the edge of the backfins is different.

Crabs that are outgrowing their shells slip out of the back of the old hard shell. They emerge as delectible little creatures that can be eaten whole.

There is no greater pleasure on earth than to devour an entire fried soft-shell crab in a few bites, consuming every cell of the organism in a chomping frenzy of bliss.

But supervising crabs that are about to molt requires great vigilance. The crabber must check his tanks every couple of hours and remove a newly emerged soft-shell crab for immediate refrigeration. Otherwise, the other crabs in the tank will cannibalize the defenseless one, or its shell will quickly harden.

So the faithful crabber interrupts his sleep like a monk to keep watch over the tank of molting ‘peelers.’ He does it so that that you and I can go to a restaurant and order soft-shell crab.

Yes, there are many things wrong with this world. But let’s not take the good things for granted.

Our Way to God + Your Clothes-Horse

1. How many priests do you know who get showcased on a premier fashion weblog?

Click here to check it out.

2. Here is our Blessed Columba Marmion quote of the day:

Let us remain faithful to our sublime calling to seek God.

We shall not arrive at the realization of our ideal in a day nor yet in a year.

We shall not arrive at it without difficulty or without sufferings–for that purity of affection, that absolute detachment, full and constant, which God requires of us before giving Himself entirely to us, is only gained by much generosity.

But if we have decided to give ourselves completely to God, without reservation, and never to bargain with Him for the least corner of our heart, let us be assured that God will reward our efforts by the perfect possession of Himself, wherein we shall find all our happiness.

Whiskey Rocks, Clooney Rocks

The adventure of Ernest Shackleton and his men was already one of the most wonderful events in history. There is a little movie about it, which is an utter delight.

Now the whole thing has gotten even more amazing. They have discovered two cases of whiskey that Shackleton and his crew accidentally left behind in Antarctica.

The 100-year-old bottles are encased in ice. They are going to cut them free. Someone, I pray, will sample the whiskey. Too awesome.

…George Clooney’s “Up in the Air” is not to be recommended for most audiences. On the other hand, it is one of the most heart-breaking movies I have ever seen.

“Make no mistake. We all die alone,” Ryan Bingham says. He is a monk of a frequent flier. (A lot of the time.)

In the end, he gets crushed. Then he strides on.

I didn’t think they knew how to make movies end this exquisitely. (Then again, “Juno” ended pretty well, too. Same director.)

“Up in the Air” also opens with an unbelievably fun song.

…Either there is a heaven up there, above the jet-trails, or, as Bingham puts it, “there is no point.”

“Tonight…most people will sleep. The stars will wheel forth from their daytime hiding places, crowning their neighborhood with lights…” So goes Bingham’s closing elegy on solitude.

In fact, there IS a heaven up there, where the angels make the stars wheel.

The way there is: to follow the solitary man who was crushed for our offenses and rose again from the dead.