Monday, November 27, 2006

Giving Thanks, Indeed

We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving. Didn’t really do squat. Played many, many games of Uno and Skip-Bo. I am the undisputed CHAMPION of the Deal Clan, mostly because when the inevitable fisticuffs ensue over rules and game procedures, I don’t hesitate to kick, bite and scratch until I have beaten everyone into submission.

Technically, Jonah might be the Champion, but he’s little and I can pick him up and toss him wherever I want, so Jon for the WIN!

But I did have one moment of self-discovery.

I’m not a huge fan of Tofurky. (i.e. Vegetarian/Vegan turkey substitute.)

Half the family is now a confirmed/dedicated vegetarian. Lucas went back to “I don’t want to be mean to the animals,” Carrie stopped wavering over how good the smell of cooking beef is and Reha is reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma so she’s all up in arms over chickens whose breasts are so large they can’t stand up properly and manure ponds in beef feedlots. Jonah and Ellis just eat what’s put in front of them after they complain that what we’ve put in front of them is neither pizza nor mac and cheese.

That leaves me as the lone carnivore in the family. We ended up having a long and interesting conversation about Thanksgiving (and all the evil the holiday entails (over-eating, celebrating the pilgrims bringing small pox to the Native Americans, and Detroit playing poorly), meat eating, why I’m evil for eating meat and my motives behind my meat eating ways.

Now I’d like to take a moment and point out that I don’t really eat a whole lot of meat generally speaking. Beef is very rarely on the menu and I eat pork only when I get a pork barbacoa burrito from Cafe Rio. (yum!) I can’t remember the last time we bought meat at the grocery store, so my meat eating is relegated to when I eat out, basically. I’m public enemy numero uno for chickens, though. I eat a whole ton of chicken (and turkey, if I’m in a sandwich eating mood).

Reha asked me why I still eat meat, given its tortured history. (Cue graphic descriptions of chickens with no beaks, pigs with no tails and a whole epic about cow manure)

“Because animals are tasty!” was not really an acceptable response. Nor was because “God made them tasty, so therefore I eat them!” Basically no version of “I like the way they taste” really did the trick of convincing my now menacing group of vegetarians that my choice to eat meat was OK.

What it comes down to is this: I have many things in my life that take precedence over how we treat our food animals. I do care about them (in a general sort of way) and in particular I’m a little worried about e. coli in beef and how nasty for the environment large industrial animal farming is. But on the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t blip on my radar very highly.

In my case it’s probably enough that I live with these vegetarian creatures. That cuts my meatiness by leaps and bounds. And I’m happy to eat the meat substitutes we have for tacos, etc., As long as we stay away from Tofurky, I’m on board. That stuff be nasty!

Jon scribbled this mess on 11/27/06 at 12:13 PM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

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