Actually, I don’t, but I have my suspicions…

Well, well, well—check out this specimen. Meet Rocky, a 27-pound lobster caught off the coast of Rockland, Maine last week.

I have to be honest–I have a very complex relationship with lobster. As a child, I was terrified of them, and would scream and run away from the table if anyone was eating one. My sister used to torment me by waving the claws in my face.

When I got to be a teenager, I learned how tasty lobster is and tried to learn how to eat it from the shell without freaking out. The results were mixed. My family still teases me about that time when I was 19 and ordered lobster in Newport, RI. When the plate was placed in front of me, I burst into tears—the lobster was all curled up and cute and, well, dead. After much debate, I deduced that the only true way to honor its death was to eat it, but I sat up much of that night imagining it curled up on my chest, waving its antennae at me.

You’d think that would have turned me off to lobster forever, but it didn’t. To this day, it’s still one of my favorite foods, but I only eat it a couple times a year, preferably if I’m having a drink with dinner. While I’m not proud of the fact that I need to get a little drunk to eat lobster, I know people who need to get drunk to do all kinds of things. And I’m not entirely serious. I’ve eaten lobster sober and liked it.

I’m not a vegetarian, but I do experience mixed feelings about eating animals at times. I always have. It’s not something I expect to ever reach a definite conclusion about, especially not as a member of a species that evolved, in part, by consuming animal protein. However, I do think it’s good to check in with yourself now and then to see where you’re at.

And yeah…I’m still a lobster eater.

As for Rocky, after a brief stay at the Maine Aquarium, has been released back to the sea. Fun fact: According to the Lobster Institute, the Guinness Book of World Records record holder is a 44-pound lobster caught in Nova Scotia in 1977. Now those must have been some big claws…

Maybe you know—what do they say about big claws?