At peace with myself and all God's creatures

I was listening to Ira Flatow's Science Friday segment on NPR recently while puttering around town and heard an interview with Dr. Sylvia Earle, an undersea explorer and marine biologist. Her point: we are ravaging our oceans. One thing I never feel guilty about is eating fish. But when Flatow asked her what fish we could without guilt she paused and her point was clear. No fish. I mean, I don't know her. I don't know that was totally her point. But her discussion of fishing practices around the world - how the methods used kill precious sea coral and destroy underwater mountains - made it clear that she believes we gotta work on this, now - how could we not??? And my world view began to crumble. I've never been a vegetarian or anything - ok, ok, I have. Once as a teenager I decided that the way cows and sheep and pigs were killed by meat producers in America (the big commercial ones, not organic farms or those who raise free-range animals) was enough reason to stop eating meat entirely. I decided that if I was going to do it right I better do it right and not eat fish either. But when my family went to Maine for a two-week vacation I faltered on the first night, had a lobster and decided that being a vegetarian wasn't my lot in life. I've kept with that ever since. Some people have the will power. I don't. While I can practice responsible eating, I'm not gonna stop ordering steak when I'm at a steakhouse. It's funny though. Because lobsters, you know, are thrown into a pot of hot water while still alive, and you'd think if I wanted to do something really humane, I'd give up that, but I didn't see it that way. Anyway, the point is that I'm not a vegetarian. I do try to do the right thing though and I've thought for a while now that doing the right thing is eating fish now and then. The non-mercury laden kind. It's good for your heart. I never even think about the oceans. The little nettles and brine shrimp and whatever the hell else this lady was talking about. It took me a while, and an assertion from J ("Cara. Our oceans our huge.") to remind me that she was an extreme person on this one subject. I'm not. I mean, I still, to this day, don't eat veal because I learned when I was very young how those poor baby cows are treated. You can only live carrying so many torches, though. I wish the world could be a perfect place in this regard but I know it's not - not yet anyway. And lobsters - I mean, let's get straight on this, they don't really have that many pain receptors, right?