You are what you eat

So I'm a vegetarian. I have been since I was like 15 years old. In most educated parts of the country this isn't very unusual. Sure I still get looks when I'm out in the sticks and I ask if there's meat in the refried beans (well of course there is, honey!), but for the most part this is an accepted diet choice. Not eating meat is a part of my personality. I am quite sure I know people who, when my name comes up, immediately think 'vegetarian". Its strange that it can become a defining character of one's personality. The thing that really gets people is that I don't really have a "cause". I'm not a vegetarian because I'm a big animal rights person--although I do have a soft spot for scaly, slimy, furry, and feathered friends alike. I'm not a vegetarian because I think meat is necessarily the answer to the global warming crisis--although I do think Americans could stand to devote a little less of our purple mountain majesties to the pursuit of obese livestock. I don't have an issue with hunters--in fact, I am really starting to think that if someone can't stomach killing an animal, they shouldn't put a killed animal in their stomach.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately with the whole recalled beef scandal. Most slaughter houses are not nice places--yeah this one was particularly bad--but I do wonder if Americans were forced to kill their own livestock, how many steak houses with giant plastic cows out front would still be in existence. On that point--what's up with the barbecue joints with pigs in aprons out front or on the sign?? My friend Ben (www.sportsacademic.blogspot.com) and I have often discussed this phenomenon. Pigs with chefs hats and forks and knives serving up pork ribs--now that's just weird!

When I was in Kenya, I stayed with a friend of mine and his family out near Lake Victoria. One day I was sitting out with the kids in the yard looking at their chickens. I had been trying to learn Swahili, but was certainly no master of the language. The eight-year -old boy asked me a question about the chickens. I thought he asked me which one I thought was the prettiest. Of the three chickens, I pointed to the biggest, brightest, most handsome one. No sooner had I pointed it out than the boy scooped up the chicken in his hands and broke its neck with the skill of a mob hitman. I'm sure my mouth stood open for quite some time after that. er ah, um...so I guess that's dinner?? I gave myself a free pass on the vegetarianism that night since I had just sentenced that beautiful animal to death--the least I could do was eat it. Not to mention I'd just taken their largest bird--it would be a little rude to refuse it now.

Mostly I am a vegetarian because its a part of my personality--like being short. I've thought about giving it up--but there's really no reason. Its healthier, its cheaper, and I don't have to think of how hypocritical I am for not killing my own food. I'd gladly kill celery or a carrot though--just let me at em! I'd never last as a hunter/gatherer.