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Carrots on the Side

Looks like I'm a vegetarian once again. Or at least mostly vegetarian. Or more vegetarian than I was before.

The first time I swore off meat products was during a college ethics class. In the middle of a lecture on Immanuel Kant, I suddenly realized that eating a steak was eating a muscle. From then on, when I thought of meat, all I could picture was someone with a fork and knife sawing away at my arms and legs.

My poor husband met me not long after that experience, and that meat-and-potatoes man was such a good sport about tofu and soy cheese. It still makes me smile. I slowly started eating meat again a year after we were married when we both wanted to try the Atkins diet.

It really was no big deal. Like most everything else I do, there's some logical reason inside my head that has little to do with what anyone else on the planet thinks.

Today's sudden dietary change is the result of two experiences I had today that are completely unrelated to getting my teeth x-rayed. On the way to the dentist this morning, I had to suddenly stop (as did 2 other lanes of traffic) for a mother duck and her 9 babies to cross.

Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but two of the babies were a bit lost, wandering around in the lanes, and I sat there hunched over with visions of baby duck guts spread all over the road. (They all made it, thanks to the man next to me who rescued the 3 on the other side of the median.)

Later in the day, I was in RadioShack. (By the way, I love going into Radio Shack to look around at all the gadgets. It's like going into Staples and drooling in the pen aisle.) I needed an adaptor for my portable t.v. so I can watch "King of Queens" while on the elliptical.

They had the news on. The leading news story of the day is rather disturbing to me. I've done a fabulous job avoiding hearing it by humming "The Star Spangled Banner" each time the announcer mentions that recalled meat from California.

But right there in the middle of Radio Shack, I was just 2 seconds too late with my "Oh say can you see..." (Yes, I sang out loud.) I heard just enough of the story to make my stomach churn and cry. (You see, I don't like chicken or pork, but I do love some steak.)

No more. Right now, the only animal product I can even consider eating is fish. Wild caught. In the United States. How did I get this picky?

Comments

Christy said…
I can totally see where you're coming from!

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