VEG-HEAD

For several years now, I've been toying with the idea of vegetarianism (and more recently, veganism).  After reading Fast Food Nation and watching Food, Inc. and turning the last few pages of Eating Animals, those toying thoughts are cementing themselves into my brain and turning into actions.  I'm learning more about the food industry as a whole and it makes me frustrated.  I'm feeling inspired by people I know who are veg-heads like my good friend and my sister (who hasn't eaten meat since 4th grade!).  I'm discussing the details of family meals with my husband as we decide how to raise our daughter and whether or not we want to feed her the antibiotic-and-hormone-filled, inhumanely killed animal products that are so hard to get away from in our culture.  And I know it will be a challenge.

One of the recent conversations I had about this idea of not eating meat resulted in this comment from a woman I know & respect... she said she couldn't be a vegetarian because "God wants us to eat meat."  Now, that one took me by surprise.  Of all the things I expected to come up when talking to people about seriously considering a non-meat-eating lifestyle, (Where will you get your protein? What will you eat at thanksgiving? Won't you ever buy your daughter a happy meal?) beginning a discussion about what the Bible says was one I didn't see coming. 
 
Now, pulling quotes from the Bible can be a dangerous game.  I personally do not believe that this work of literature should be a literal rulebook of DOs and DON'Ts, but instead perhaps, as many of the stories it contains, a parable reminding us on the whole to live by that Golden Rule.  There always seems to be a one-for-one in the Bible.  A vegetarian can site Genesis 1:29, "Behold I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food" as the a vote for not eating meat; and in the same book, only a few chapters later, a fervent omnivore could retaliate with Genesis 9:3, "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything." And it's not just how we should eat that can be debated within these pages, it's everything from homosexuality to marriage to child-rearing to giving money to the church to how the world will end.  And the debates can be funny or serious or thought-provoking.

So many things to consider when one is making a decision about food - it affects more aspects of our life than a first glance might lead us to believe.

THIS THING CALLED LOVE (From Left to Write - Book Club)

"I just can't have you calling it adrenaline, when it was love.  It was love.  Big love.  And I've held onto it all these years..."


- THE STUFF THAT NEVER HAPPENED
by Maddie Dawson

The word "love" is so slippery sometimes.  I've heard it said, (because there is so much of it?) that Eskimos have 26 different words for snow... and I often think we humans - with our complicated emotions, jealousies, desires, hubris - need at least double that many words for love.  Those four simple letters, two vowels, two consonants... well, they just don't seem big enough to hold all the meaning inside.  All the hurt.  All the joy.  And all the confusion.

Like all feelings - sorrow, happiness, fear - love is beyond verbal definition.  How do you know you're happy?  You know when you feel it.  How do you know you're in love?  You just know.  Or do you?

The love that we're so sure of in high school can turn out to be merely a path toward discovering your sexuality.  The love that we're so sure of in college can turn out to be a stumbling toward figuring out where you will most easily be accepted.  The love that we're so sure of in our mid-twenties can turn out to be an attempt to make a statement of what our life should be, grasping whatever (or whoever) is nearest that we think might fit that vision.

And always, in the moment of love or of passion or of wanting-to-be-wanted, we think "This is it.  This time must be the real deal."  And often, with the bittersweet weight of hindsight, we think "Ah. Well.  Suppose that wasn't the it I thought it was."

“Quod me netrit me destruit.”
("What nourishes me also destroys me.") 

Love can, at times, feel like a drug - pushing us to the limit, allowing us to soar higher than the heavens and then, just as quickly, tossing us like a ragdoll onto the cold, hard pavement and driving us deep into those dark depths... and yet it is amazing how quickly and how readily we are willing to pick up the torch again and begin forging another path through its jungle.


For more quotes collected from this book, visit Borrowing Wisdom.

Disclosure: This post was inspired by THE STUFF THAT NEVER HAPPENED by Maddie Dawson. I received a copy of this book to read and discuss as a member of From Left to Write.   The thoughts and opinions expressed above are my own.  Click here to purchase your own copy of this book.

THE END OF THE INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT

"So the Google-Verizon deal can be summed up as this: 'FCC, you have no authority over us and you're not going to do anything about it. Congress, we own you, and we'll get whatever legislation we want. And American people, you can't stop us.'"

Big Money.  Sigh.  Sometimes things like this make me feel incredibly helpless and frustrated.

READ MORE of the full article on The Huffington Post.

BROADWAY AND THE MOSQUE

There's lots of controversy over this one... and though I haven't read much about it, (nor do I want to - I tend to think there are so many bigger issues to get riled up over than something like this) I did read this.  And I liked it.  A lot.  So I figured I'd share it here... and let the opinions fall where they may.

"When we tell the world, 'Yes, we are a country that will even tolerate a mosque near the site of 9/11,' we send such a powerful message of inclusion and openness." 

READ MORE of this NY Times op-ed piece here.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY