January 18, 2009

 

No more an omnivore

I've been giving it a lot of thought, and I'm strongly considering giving up something that I really love, eating meat. This is not a result of my vegetarian cooking with Allison although she has shown me that cooking without meat can still somehow be quite tasty, as surprising as that might seem.

When you think about it, eating is one of my biggest accomplishments on earth. When I think about all the food I've had to eat in my life, I wonder how many thousands of cows have lost their lives for my dining pleasure, or how many thousands of chickens, how many hundreds of turkeys. The list goes on, its a long list. I have eaten a lot of meat.

The real reason I've come to this decision is for a long time I've been considering many eastern philosophies especially from Buddhism, many of which seem like very good principles to live by. One of the most important ideas is to do no harm to any living creatures. However there is also the idea of the middle way, which basically is to not adhere to an idea to the point of being extreme.

Much of my enjoyment in dining has come from eating animals. And yet quite possibly I'm saying goodbye to cheese burgers even though though they are sublimely delicious, and on the dollar menu, not to mention buffalo wings, steak, and almost everything good about breakfast.

Well, I'm still thinking it over. It is a lot to ask of myself. Maybe I could just cut back a lot on my animal intake.

Labels: Allison, Vegetarian

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