Life Lessons Through Crawdads

Their wide-eyed, slack-jawed, teary-eyed stare told the story. They were faced with a difficult decision that was about to teach them a life lesson about life itself.

My boys and I spent the better part of the morning walking along a clear, cold-runnin' creek in Western New York. One would think the highlight of our backwoods adventure was the beautiful velvet 10-point we caught sneaking along in the waters' edge but it wasn't. Instead, our prized possession ambled lazily about on the bottom of a faded ol' blue beach pail, the kind with the cheap white plastic handle. Inside its keep scurried about two dozen of Mother Nature's finest looking crawdads, or crayfish as those northern folk like to call 'em.

The mornin' was spent teachin' the boys to catch crawdads. It only took but a few tries for my nine-year old son Jarret to get the catchin' technique down, red solo cups serving as our instruments of capture. Once he realized their first move is always a straight shot backwards, he anticipated well and positioned the red plastic trap perfectly. Of course those elusive ones that skirted the cup and brushed his hand or his foot caused him to start, but I didn't care, the smile on his face and giggle in his voice assured me he was in no danger.

Ryan, my six-year-old, was a totally different story. He was tryin' to rewrite my age-old crawdad catchin' instructions. He couldn't quite figure out why you couldn't just reach down and grab them where they set. Though he tried with all his might, he just couldn't get close enough to grab ahold of one. When they shot clear of his five-fingered claw, he wasn't near as startled by the mini-lobsters as his older brother but that was simply because he wasn't taught to be afraid of them. I was thankful for that but after awhile I finally convinced him to let the cup do the catchin'.

Needless to say the mornin' was glorious and before long the midday sun was reminding us that grandma would soon have lunch waiting for the boys. I looked down to see the boys' tally. Though they had initially started keeping track of who caught more it was soon apparent that Jarret was going to win that contest. Fortunately Ryan bested him in the biggest crawdad category so each boy was beaming from ear to ear. That's when I dropped the bomb on them.

I didn't even think twice before giving the order. We had to hike back up to the main road and start heading home so I wasn't about to lug a big ol' pail full of water. My simple words were, "All right boys… dump'em out."

You would think I just sold the boys to the neighbors for an ice cold coke.

Both boys stood in shock not believin' what they just heard.

"What d'ya mean dump 'em out? We just caught them!" was my son's exasperated cry.

I then explain how we needed to get home but my words fell on deaf ears for they could not understand why they couldn't just keep them. And thus began the lesson.

When I had finished explaining how Mother Nature created the perfect system, and that animals were not meant as an instrument of play but rather of respect or nourishment, I left the boys with two options.

One...we could relieve the bucket of its contents and return the crawdads to their watery crevices knowing full well we could enjoy yet another day pursuing our clawed quarry.

Or two... they become dinner.

The boys desire to take them home to "play with," at the creatures expense no less, was simply not an option. Life is simply too valuable to disregard no matter the size of the creature, save insects, of course...you can always squash those biting bothersome kind.

Needless to say, grandma wasn't too happy her good cooking pot smelt of creek water, but the crawdads sure made for a fine fare that evenin'. And yes, even the six-year-old was sucking the meat from the tiny but tasty tails.

I was ever so thankful for that long ago creekside lesson because it was one that instilled a reverence in my boys. Whether it be from the pull of a trigger or the setting of a hook, they now understand they are staking a claim to an animal's life and that need not ever be taken lightly.

If only more folks learnt lessons from crawdads.