I posted on Facebook that after 20 years of vegetarianism I was eating meat. Now that it’s on Facebook it must be for real! Many responses followed. One in particular I had to comment back on. An old friend from college commented that when she told her daughter who is a vegetarian that I was eating meat, her daughter’s response was that it was a tragedy. My comment back was that the real tragedy was not giving your body the nutrients it truly needs. She then added ‘will you email or call her because she will not listen to me and she is not growing and developing'. Understand that this child is only 11. I called my friend and told her to read Robb Wolf’s book and that I could visit and we could talk with her together. This led me to a lot of thinking.
I became a vegetarian at the age of 20. Development into an adult had already happened. This child was preventing the natural physical development of her body. Why? The decision to stop eating meat evolved out of my feelings of guilt for eating something that had been alive. I believe animals have souls and that hasn’t changed. But animals eat animals. There are animals that would eat me. Of course, I stay away from them unless looking at them in a zoo. The longer I pondered this, the more I connected this decision with self worth issues. Had I not felt worthy of taking life to live? It is a question I still struggle with. But, I do know that we are supposed to eat meat. We are a part of nature no matter how superior we think we are.
There is something in the book The Paleo Solution that I have made my new grace.
- It has to have a face.
- It has to have a soul.
- You have to kill it and bring the essence of the animal inside you.
- Really!
I think when I read this it was really the turning point in my thinking. Bringing the essence of the animal inside you is respectful of that animal’s life. While we may need to kill them we can respect their life and soul while they are alive. This is why I purchase my meat at Whole Foods where they sell cage free, grass feed, etc. meat.
I am sorry, but if this made you change your mind
ReplyDelete"
It has to have a face.
It has to have a soul.
You have to kill it and bring the essence of the animal inside you.
Really!
"
If you think that you get the soul of the animal when you eat them, you must have a very peculiar mind.
There is no essence to speak of. None at all. Nowhere. All there is is a stream of changing forms that are interdependent on each other. And why does this matter in this context? Because if you see that, then you will also see that "what matters" is the set of all conscious experiences. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. For animals have conscious experiences, it is the case that their suffering matter. This is the true an rational reason why it is not good to make them suffer if we can help it.