6.30.2006 ||> Things people say to vegetarians, pt. 1
One of the most typical things that people say when they learn that I am a vegetarian is "why?", as in "why would you possibly give up meat?" It said with either a tone of vague horror or suspicion, as if I either have gone crazy or have a wacky political agenda.
This is a genuinely difficult question to answer. I have been a vegetarian for so long that my reasons have changed and now form a web so entangled that I don't have a short, pat reason. Is it political? Not really. Spiritual? Nope. It's not really a health reason either. It's simply who I am, with no real reason or excuse.
The askers won't let up either. In the past, I have made many a pithy comment. That I'm really pro-life; that I think it's cool; that if they had to eat my mother's cube steak, they'd be one too. They simply chuckle and ask, "no, really... why?"
I will sometimes make up health reasons. I say I'm allergic, or that if I eat meat, I will get sick. This is true, but people won't accept it either. They will ask how I got that way, how I started out being a vegetarian. Well, it happened 13 years ago, so I really don't remember.
But, above all I cannot tell the truth. If I say that I simply don't know why I'm a vegetarian, except that it feels right for me, they will psychoanalyze me or put words in my mouth. Every single time. "Well, how can you not know?" "Well, how did it start out?" Like they are psychiatrists and I am a fascinating case study. I would be touched, but I don't like delving into my childhood on normal days, much less with strangers. Excepting the ones on the internet, naturally.
My question is this, you Omnivores of the Blogosphere: Why do people do this? Why do they always have to ask why? When I find people that like brussel sprouts or Nascar, I don't put them through interrogations on their preferences. What is so intriguing about vegetarianism and why are all these pseudo-sociologists doing their informal studies?
Labels: vegetarianism
The cable and internet was installed on Sunday. Except I still don't have internet. But I'm paying for it!
I now have DVR, which means I can record the programs I like and Tony doesn't have to watch them. And vice versa. However, it came too late to catch the last part of the second season of Battlestar Galactic,, which we both want to see. Hoepfully we can record them on rerun before the third season.
The new apartment is coming along, but there is much work to be done.
Tony Pierce said something the other day that got to me. I can't find it to save my life, or I would quote, but he talked about writers block. Every writer gets to the point of not being able to right. The reason, he says, is that we are simply not writing about what we want to be. If we are afraid of writing about a topic out of fear that our friends and family will get upset, we should get a venue that they won't see and write what we want to write about.
I do live with that censor over my head. There's wanting to not get fired, or writing in the heat of anger and having those word thrown back at me at another time. There's times when I feel upset and people call me to try to talk me out of doing something harmful to myself (although I never would). My favorite is when people take what I say completely out of context (oftentimes because I don't supply any). When writing about these topics consumes me, I won't write, or will write only milquetoast entries that don't have any spark to them.
So is the option then to wait until something else pops into my head? Perhaps. Other writers say just to write anyway, even if it has nothing to do with the topic you want to write about. Perhaps that is a way as well.
