Dustin, I’m feeling especially generous today. If you don’t feel like posting 200 words about my couch, you now have the option of talking about meat.
I feel that I would be somewhat remiss in leaving 15+ years of vegetarianism behind and not saying much more about it than a throwaway sentence in a throwaway blog post.
So, for those of you who didn’t notice it, I’m eating meat now. Except, I’m not really eating all that much meat now. Because, while bacon might be tasty (as I’ve been telling people all along, it’s a gateway meat), if I had my druthers, I would still be a vegetarian.
I started eating meat for one simple reason: hunger. Well, that and the fact that a friend kept coming over and cooking things like steak and chicken in our kitchen and (damn his eyes!) it smelled good. But mostly? Hunger.
You see, I used to be what’s called a pescetarian, which is a fancy word for someone who is basically a vegetarian but who does eat fish. Until I learned that eating fish was causing me to break out into massive, horrible, itchy hives. So I stopped eating fish because, well, I was not such a fan of the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad hives. Hives and I do not get along, per se. Hives were not my friends.
So then I became a full vegetarian, hooray for me! Except then we would go to restaurants and BBQs where there was nothing vegetarian that I could eat (damn those mushrooms and their unfortunate effect on my gag reflex!). And then I quickly became a very hungry vegetarian. Which made me a very cranky vegetarian. Which made me wonder at Kristian’s ability to continue loving me as we drove home from a wedding where there was nothing for me to eat but the dessert and I sobbed hysterically because I was so damn hungry except I wouldn’t ADMIT that I was hungry. I was just sad, dammit. Until he bought be a large platter of mexican food and I inhaled it in about two minutes. And then I wasn’t so sad anymore. Maybe I was just hungry. Ok, I will begrudgingly admit that I was just hungry. It’s not my fault that my secret stash of granola bars got locked in a room with everyone’s stuff!
Where was I? Oh yes, the hungry, cranky vegetarian.
I wrestled with this whole “meat” thing for a few months. It was hard for me to admit that I wasn’t such a joy to be around when there was nothing for me to eat. It was even harder to give up a facet of myself that had been part of my identity for more than half my life. It was also really hard to go to a restaurant and order a grilled cheese off of the kids’ menu because there was nothing on there for grownups that I could eat. Not that I don’t love a grilled cheese and fries, but those kids’ portions are small!
So, I resolved that I would start eating meat on occasion. If only to avoid causing a scene when we get somewhere that doesn’t have a veggie option. I’d still prefer to be a vegetarian, but I’m just not sure how realistic it would be. At least, I’m not sure how realistic it would be for me. If I could a) stand mushrooms or 2) go for more than a couple of hours of not eating without wanting to kill someone… I think that I would probably still be a vegetarian.
I’d prefer to be a vegetarian, because I’ve never been a huge fan of eating meat. Because most of the meat that we eat is severely mistreated on its way towards our dinner tables. Because raising meat uses far more of the Earth’s resources than growing vegetables. And because I’d like to think that my vegetarianism is at least partially responsible for the fact that I have ridiculously low cholesterol levels.
So thank you, James, for reminding me in the comments for my last entry about why it’s not such a bad thing to be a vegetarian. I got so swept up in “Hey! We went out! And I could eat almost everything on the menu!” that I forgot why I became a vegetarian in the first place (My reason, truth be told, was pure stubbornness on my part). I might have gone a bit, ahem, hog wild in my first couple of weeks as an omnivore, but I would like to continue to eat mostly vegetarian.
But I don’t know if I can ever pass up bacon again!
