Compassion

[sueg]

When I made wishes for Finn, when he was a baby, I wished that he would be compassionate. The other day, my MIL was here and she swatted a housefly that was in our house. Finn cried. He isn't used to seeing that happen. I will swat mosquitoes but I usually leave houseflies alone. I know they carry germs, but they still seem really innocuous to me

Comments

[cuddlekin]

Your posts about Finn's sayings always make me smile. He seems like such a cool kid. Also, crying over a fly is totally something I would have done as a child. I loved all animals, even slugs and flies and centipedes. :)

[skye_blue]

lovely job mama!

[koken23]

For all his occasional crazy and hyper, Finn is a sweet little boy. He has a good heart. :)

It's a funny one, the meat dilemma. Being a chef - and growing up in a country where being vegetarian would be...pretty much unthinkable, much like growing a second head! - it's something that I've thought about a lot as I've gotten older. I'm also trained as a butcher, so there's that aspect as well...

I came to a conclusion eventually. Maybe it will work for you.

Argentine food is all about meat (so I've been pretty much raised from birth to eat all the offal and blood and various squishy internal things that Americans might throw out!) and my father grew up on a farm in the foothills of the Andes. All the time I've ever spent with my grandparents, right from when I was only barely walking, has been centred around the animals, their patterns and the rituals of raising and slaughtering them that shape the course of the year. I cannot, physically, separate the idea of eating meat from the knowledge that something is going to die for me to

[sueg]

This is beautifully written.

It also reminds me of the time I went to an Argentinian restaurant when I was vegetarian and had a mighty hard time ordering.

If I were really to eat in accordance with my present-day values, I would eat meat, but only meat that were hunted in the wild or raised humanely (i.e., not factory farmed). Meat like that is available in my community, and I do buy it sometimes, especially in the summer when I can get to the farmer's market frequently, but it is expensive. So another alternative would be to eat vegetarian 90% of the time and eat the expensive locally-raised meat the other 10%, and drag the family along with me. I'd have to re-learn how to cook for a family that way, though, and make sure we got enough protein without relying on overprocessed soy or too much unfermented soy, and that feels overwhelming to me right now, and I'm pretty sure it would be more expensive than what I'm doing now too - and I have to CUT my budget drastically in the near future. That all sounds like a copout, even to me,

[koken23]

It's almost traditional for Australian kids to travel when they finish high school. They work, they save up, they get the cheapest flight they can, and then they rough it continuously for at least six months, doing the jobs none of the locals would be caught dead doing. One of my friends from high school, very very vegetarian...she went to Argentina. Loved it. She sent me an email going OMG THE FOOD HERE IS AMAZING THEY DO THE MOST FABULOUS HOT CHIPS.

...I didn't have the heart to tell her that most of what she was eating was probably cooked in beef tallow!

I might be able to help you with lining your diet and your values up without breaking the bank. We're military, so we live the po' folks life! My way, you won't be eating All Tofu All The Time, either. Tell me, what sort of things do the family - Finn especially, since he's probably going to be the one who makes the most fuss about switching - like to eat now? What are the favourites?

[sueg]

Ah, Finn's favorite foods are bacon or sausages, so no help there, but we eat a fairly varied diet, enough so that I can't think of any "staples" that we have all the time. I plan my menus based on what meat is on sale at the store, and then do whatever is appropriate to do with that particular cut of meat. Finn does love quesadillas, which I make with black beans and usually no meat, but that's a lunchtime food. I can make a great vegetarian chili, but most of my soups and stews have meat and those that don't (like carrot ginger soup) I love, but they (Hans and Finn) don't. Hans will not eat curry and neither Finn nor Hans thinks much of potatoes. We love beef or chicken stew with drop biscuits... roast chicken with steamed veg's on the side... pasta, easy to do vegetarian, but then there's little protein in the meal... a stir fry now and then... BBQ ribs or chicken on the grill... The thing I like about preparing meat, actually, is that you can shake some herbs on it and throw it in the oven or in a saute pan and it will come out

[captain_oz]

Yep. He's a sweet, compassionate boy.