i could probably get in trouble for thinking like this.

[dizziedumb]

after four days pretty much spent entirely inside of the hospital, i'm really glad to be gifted with such a great spring day. last night, somehow, the world was just calling to me. i said no to the AIR show, i said no to the party, and i'd resigned myself to drifting off with ella fitzgerald. a knock on my door came then and it was my neighbor,

Comments

[beebox]

this is an awesome post! since I went back to being vegetarian (I had 8 years under my belt, wth?!!!) I feel so much better, not just physically, but abiding by AHIMSA (what is more important?), and yes, the world we've constructed here can be viewed with more clarity and transparence...
although sometimes I do wish I had a microwave. it's really nice to heat up leftovers! but also no big deal to eat them cold/heat them on the stove. oh and I totally want a juicer, too. totally gonna get taejon one for his birthday and then use it all the time hehehe
anyway, you're awesome.

[dizziedumb]

i didn't want to say anything, but i had wondered a few times why you had stopped being veg. good for you! you are right, not much better than ahimsa.

i've also used the micro for leftovers, but much of the time i end up reheating over the stove anyway, also adding some fresh garlic/tomato/something to give it something... well, fresh. the thought of taking some of my produce that's at risk for rotting and throwing it in a juicer, tarting it up, and having it for breakfast gives me a tingle of excitement. weird, i know.

[starskin]

*using other sentient beings as our basis of food, fashion, and scientific testing is okay (this is exactly what hitler did, only he stepped it up one simple notch)

Well, no, not exactly. Hitler used Jews, ethnic minorities, the disabled and various other 'undesirables', etc for scientific testing so that, later, he could more efficiently exterminate them entirely from the planet, like vermin, because they weren't fit to live at all in his vision. That's not quite the same thing that you're protesting against. You're over a history of use or exploitation of animals, not a deliberate, methodical attempt specifically to eradicate them from the planet. I kind of understand why you're drawing the parallel, but this statement really bothered me.

Bizarrely, Hitler was a vegetarian.

[iamom]

And he loved dogs!

[starskin]

I know! How weird is that?! He actually was a pretty big animal-lover in general. He once joked to Eva Braun that he looked forward to the day when they could stop using animal fat in her cosmetics, because they could just use the fat from dead soldiers instead. Holy....

[iamom]

He was such a weird fucker. It's too bad we couldn't have caught him and done some good psych analysis on him. Or found him posthumously and analyzed his brain or something. I can't help thinking that if someone with some sense had just intervened with him earlier, it all would have been avoided... I mean, he was an art student in Vienna in the 20s, I think -- what if someone had encouraged him more in that direction instead of turning him away because he was shitty?

[iamom]

Great post. (I laughed about the Cuisinart bit.) Inspiring to think more about going veg, too. We've experimented with it at various points in our past, but now we mostly try to eat locally-sourced, organically-raised meat, chicken and fish. It costs about twice as much as what's available in the supermarket, but that has also resulted in a big decrease to our consumption. We have meat 4-5 days a week now, but in smaller quantities. We used to eat it every day, and eat a lot of it

[dizziedumb]

still haven't seen food, inc!

when i was a kid i wasn't much into meat, either. i remember the old smoosh-the-hamburger-patty-under-the-plate, she'll-never-know trick. and boy, did she know.

[starskin]

An interesting aside. The Judeo-Christian system of human-animal relations comes from Genisis, when Adam is told he has 'dominion' over "every living thing" in the world. Traditionally that's taken to mean mastery or ownership. But the original Greek word, which was translated as 'dominion' can be read either as 'mastery' or as 'stewardship'.

[dizziedumb]

i'd like to think, because i am an optimist, that christianity at its core is a series of good notions for clean living, right action, and personal support. but then there's all those wacky myths, which people forget are myths, and they're all taken to mean whatever suits the interpreter. i have no doubt that, initially, dominion meant stewardship. genesis also states that god has... how does it go?... "given every seed and fruit-bearing plant, and you shall eat and live in there safely?" something like that. it's on a big banner at the hospital.

[solarium]