Sometimes pushing and pulling is not the easiest way to get what you want. Here is a story that reinforces that philosophy. It is about a man out in the wild. Like a Hemingway novel, it’s about a man against a terrible beast – a dreaded blue crab with the fighting spirit of a marlin and the mind of a Rubik’s cube…
On vacation with my family last week we stayed in the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It was there that I learned about crabbing.
I’ve never been crabbing before, but we were located on a canal supposedly brimming with blue crab. One of the managers of the resort taught me in a few words how to go crabbing.
Go to any supermarket and buy a rig. It’s just a string with a weight on it. Put a chicken neck on it and throw it in the water and wait. You’ll feel a crab tugging on the string. Just pull it in real slow and scoop it up with a net.
I bought two rigs, baited them up and threw them in the water. Within minutes, the strings shifted from right to left and vice versa. I commenced to pulling back. After pulling the bait close to the dock, I could make out the crab playing tug-o-war with the chicken neck.
I got the net ready and quickly snatched up the crab.
It all seemed easier than I originally thought…until… I tried getting the crab out of the net.
The crab’s strong claws gripped the net fiercely. Its other legs fought frantically, thereby tangling the crab more and more with each movement.
I grabbed a pair of kitchen tongs and tried to pry it’s legs out of the mesh. Each leg I released was replaced on the other side with a leg digging further into the netting. For an hour I tried to free it. The crab was so tangled, it began to look like it was wearing a green sweater.
Luckily, one of the grounds keepers walked by and noticed my struggle on the dock with this creature. Knowledgeable about crabbing he instructed me to hang the crab, net and all, an inch or two over the water in the canal.
I did as he said.
For a minute the crab didn’t move a muscle. Then the crab started to move. One leg free, then the next. Like magic, the crab attracted to his watery home, undid every knot and sling holding him in place.
Then “plop” he dropped effortlessly into the water.
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Here is another interesting perspective about the law of attraction
http://www.whakate.com/lead-articles/twain-take-on-poor-richard-and-the-secret-opinion/
Isn’t the idea of crabbing to catch the crab and then eat the crab?
Maybe you should have put a pot of water under him.
Robert, yes, that’s the idea. In this case it was getting late – 1 blue crab doesn’t amount to much. I think we ended up having steak that night.
Ohhh that seems like an interesting little tip for crabbing
I was planning to eventually go crabbing with my friends, so this should come in handy if the situation comes up.
(I <3 eating crabs lol)
Jennifer, there are also crab cages that look like pyramids when closed. They lay flat on the bottom of the water and you put bait in them. Every now and again, you pull out the cage and there are crabs in it.
I haven’t tried the cage myself, because I wanted it to be more “sporting.”
Good luck with your voyage.
It’s quite incredible what you can achieve when you can clearly see your goal. Good for you too at having the commitment to get the crab free – there aren’t many people who would spend an hour trying to untangle it.
Cheers, Dan
Dan | Personal Developments last blog post..Dealing With Aggressive or Angry People
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