I think I'm going to have to resort to posting to my blog in the mornings before work, because this is the only time I ever have anymore where I can sit in front of a computer and get my thoughts down! I'm sorry for the big delay in between posts, and doubly sorry that this one is going to be so boring. A LOT has been going on in our lives out here lately, but none of it really interesting for blogging. The dogs take up a lot of time and they're doing well. Marla gets incrementally better every day, but she's an adolescent, so that's not saying much. The same old yardstick still applies: she's way better than Max was at her age.
Work has been so busy lately that I can't see straight. I just put my head down, work, and wake up from my zone-in at five. I would keep working at home because I'm so far behind, but there's so much to do there too. I'm babysitting the neighbor's kid three times a week and simultaneously trying to get more exercise and take full control of my family's diet, so that I entrust none of it to people that weren't raised by a Greek mother with a healthy dose of common dietary sense.
Speaking of dietary sense, I've been struggling with it big time. Really ever since we moved to Portland. I used to have so much tolerance of other people's dietary politics. I was even proud to have friends that were "conscious" enough to become vegetarians, even though I disagreed with it myself. (I maintain that there's no such thing as a Greek vegan.) That's all gone now. My tolerance is out the window.
Ever since moving here, I constantly feel so judged by the vegan police that I can't take this crap anymore. I won't burden you guys here with every reason I think that "alternative" diets are crap. I just wish that people considering experimenting with their health for the sake of what they perceive to be morals would open their minds and talk to people that have made the decision to stick with eating meat. We don't all scream and we didn't all make the choice because we just didn't think about it hard enough, or because we were so evil, or so calloused, or because we were idiots. Immediately discounting whatever input an omnivore may have as being ill-thought not only disserves just the vegetarian/vegan, but it disserves everyone else in society that they will subsequently attempt to judge, guilt, or throw things at.
More later, I'm going to make a strong attempt to update this more often. There's only one block of time I have available, and I'm going to use it.
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8 comments:
Glad your back...sounds like life is a little crazy for you all right now! Hang in there with all the crazy vegan people. They can be so snotty sometimes :)
Nice to see you on here again! I'm all for eating meat, but just as there are ignorant vegans/vegetarians (towards omnivores) there are ignorant omnivores. Plenty of pros and cons for both sides.
I can sympathize with your plight... Seriously, hypocrisy is lame. [Who wants to start up a people-milking scheme with me?] When vegetarians allow bacon, I'm there!
I felt pretty persecuted as a vegetarian in NZ - Meat Capital of the World!
For the record, I'm not against meat - just the meat industry. If you want to hunt your own, I think that's pretty darn ethical. But also, I'm too queasy for that.
Also, I'm glad your back!
Mmmm, New Zealand. I had lamb for Easter that was straight from New Zealand.
So what you're telling me, Kirsten, is that if I had only offered to feed you only ethically farmed or hunted meats, you would have eaten them? Why is it that people choose to opt out instead of work to find an ethical farmer? Fix the broken system, people, don't run away from problems!
I'll tell you what. My family and I are going to make big changes to the quantity of meats we eat and the sources from which we get them. No more supporting inhumane farming practices, but that doesn't mean we're going to give up meat.
I've always asked vegans and vegetarians if they would eat meat/eggs/dairy etc. if they were the ones raising or obtaining it. Everyone I have asked has said no, though. I don't get it. Isn't the biggest objection the inhumane treatment of the animals in the food industry?
At some point in my life when I have land, I plan on raising chickens, rabbits, and maybe even goats. I want a solution to the industry, and what better way to do it than raise my own animals? That way I know they will receive proper care and a good life.
Although even if I made a cake with humane eggs that I raised, my vegan friends still wouldn't eat it. Boo.
that's a good question... I'd be reluctant to eat even hunted meat, just because the thought of eating muscle tissue makes me queasy. But you know, I might be persuaded. I wouldn't feel like I'd breached a conviction or anything.
And "conviction" is a pretty strong word too. The pets aren't on any special diet, and I grudgingly use some leather products - although I always look for an alternative first.
It's a difficult world to make a difference in. Not eating meat is an easy thing for me to do, but I realize that everyone has to make their own choices and concessions. I don't think mine are terribly admirable or dramatic.
I'm seriously excited to see how your diet changes go - pave the way, Christina!
I just think of it this way: I have always found fruit to be disgusting and morally reprehensible in every way. Yet, recognizing that any eating pattern that cuts out an entire food group is unhealthy, I have jammed more fruit into my body this year than I had in the previous combined years. It's good for a person to get a balanced diet, see? So I learned that while I may never be able to eat bananas and oranges, I can eat blueberries and watermelon. Now, you may think pork is the worst...I could see that some people may not like certain types of meat. If I were you, I would find an ethical farmer that raises and slaughters his animals in a manner that is completely ethical (that does exist) and eat the meats you find that you can eat without feeling repulsed. Eat meat in small quantities occasionally, like we all should.
So when we get chickens for eggs you guys will take some off our hands right? I worry that we will have too many. I asked if we could have a goat and I got a hell no. What use are guinea pigs I tells ya? Well, some eat them. . . I am not sure theyd taste good enough to go through the trouble of skinning and deep frying. Plus I guess they are cute:)
I hear you on the politics of diet. It is always hard when any politics don't mesh amongst people especially when it is something that we have to do on a daily basis to survive such as eating/breathing. I am glad that here I dont have to deal with that as much, just my work related politics. It does feel defeating after a while to have people judge you on your views to the point that they wont even hear you and treat you like a 2nd class citizen or like an ignorant turd.
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