Editor's Note Lessons from ‘Leon the Lobster’ By Darcy L. Fargo

April 13, 2022

It was back in autumn when I saw the first video the series included in the list of videos YouTube suggested for me.

The video was titled, “Keeping a Grocery Store Lobster as a Pet.”

How could I pass that by?

So began the “Leon the Lobster” series.

As that first title in the series suggested, Leon is a lobster purchased from a grocery store. He now lives in a relatively large aquarium maintained by a hobby fish enthusiast. Every month or so, a video is posted highlighting some aspect or aspects of Leon’s life – his feeding, how he cleans himself and his tank, how he handled a tank upgrade…

In the most recent video in the series, posted a couple weeks ago, Leon molted, shedding his old exoskeleton to accommodate his growth.

When he emerged from his old outer shell, Leon was much more vibrantly colored than he was before. While the content creator/narrator noted the coloration change, something else caught his attention. Something else on Leon had changed.

Leon was now missing the marks that had been left on him by the rubber band that had been placed on his claws when he was caught and transported as part of the grocery supply chain.

The video’s comment section was full of comments about Leon getting a new life and losing the scars of his past. I saw more than one that implied, “it would be nice if people could do that.”

As I’ve moved through this latter portion of Lent and toward Holy Week and Easter, I’ve thought frequently about Leon the lobster and those comments.

Lobsters don’t have a monopoly on shedding the scars of their pasts. Our Lord gave us that opportunity, too.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen numerous parishes offering opportunities to molt our sins and shame through the sacrament of reconciliation.

And that’s before we even consider what we’re about to celebrate this week: Christ dying on the cross for our sins and defeating death by rising to new life. His doing so gives us the promise of eternal life – life in which we will be made whole – free of the scars and wounds of our pasts – and live completely in his love and grace.
Leon the lobster can’t compete with that.

From all of us at the North Country Catholic, we wish you a blessed Holy Week and Easter.