I am a vegetarian
Well, that statement isn't entirely true. Actually I am a pesco-vegetarian, one who eats fish but no land mammals, and I have been for over half of a year now. Hmmmm, that's not entirely true either, I've had exactly one bite of poultry or some other land mammal maybe 5-6 times in the past 6 months, and I had a meatball at my grandmother's when I was home on vacation. And I have eaten a handful of marshmallows in the past few months. So I guess you can call me a pesco-pollo-meatball-marshmallow-itarian. This labeling system can get a little crazy. I feel like a vegetarian, and I have a diet almost completely consisting of vegetables, legumes, fruits, some seafood, and some dairy that is all grown and produced locally or at lest regionally. Also these products are purchased either at farmers markets or the local co-op. But in many circles, I still might not be considered a vegetarian, and sometimes this bothers me. Sometimes I don't feel like part of the club.
This labeling system based on diet is one of many that we give ourselves so that social groups can accept us. Let's see... what am I?
I am a:
White-Male-Straight-Italian-American-Secular-Liberal-Democrat-Cyclist-Accountant-Vegetarian
And look how proud my people are.
Where does this sense of pride come from? Really, if we think about it, it's a feeling of privilege, of feeling that we are better than those who don't meet the same classifications. Why is that ok?
Now, don't get me wrong, it's helpful for my relatives to hear that I am a vegetarian, because then they know that I am not going to eat their baked chicken. And yes for identification purposes I am a white male. But why do we take these general descriptions of ourselves so seriously? How many social problems are caused by doing this?
Before you come at me with an argument for why you are proud to belong to one of these groups, understand that I too get excited because I know the benefits to myself and the earth of being a vegetarian, I know why I am a liberal, and I know that living the cyclists life has many, many advantages. But the thing is that every meat eating, conservative, SUV driving person does as well, and they have their own reasons for thinking that I am wrong. And no matter how foolish I believe those reasons are, they are very personal reasons and who am I to judge them and tell them I am right... everyone has their own truth.
All I'm getting at is that maybe we should stop putting so much weight into these labels and start realizing that we are who we are. I'm not vegetarian, I'm not a pesco-vegetarian, and I'm not a pesco-pollo-meatball-marshmallow-itarian. I'm Sal, and I'm very happy to be me.
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10 comments:
I liked your post Salvatore. And I do understand what you mean about the vegetarian groupings...I myself am guilty of this. I am a no meat (including sea-food) vegetarian, and I admit that I dislike fish eaters calling themselves vegetarians. Why? I'm not sure...maybe because I'm proud of the commitment I've made to eat no flesh, and so I don't want to share that pride with people who, as I see it, haven't gone all the way there?
But, it's a double edged sword. I still get my milk cheap at Stop and Shop, and so my sisters feels, jokingly, morally superior to me for eating only free range/organic/local dairy products. Jim, in turn, feels morally superior for using no animal products at all (vegan), and consumes most of his food from local farms and markets, and grows a bunch of his own as well.
I think the point is to examine your lifestyle and decide what is best for you and for the earth. And, as often as you're able, to make the next step. I imagine someday I'll be a vegan, but I'm not ready for that step. Perhaps someday you'll swear off eating the fishes. But when you're ready. What's important is the direction your boat is pointing. Yours, my friend, seems to have been in the right direction for a long time.
Oh, but if/when you drop the fish food diet, I encourage you to keep eating eels. They deserve it, the shifty bastards.
I know what you mean Todd and actually I'm probably eventually going to go into a completely different direction. For my whole reasoning for being a vegetarian has to do with eating sustainably, the idea of eating locally being the main theme. That means only eating whole foods that are produced locally. This may eventually mean eating meat once again since it is extremely difficult to have a balanced totally local vegetarian diet. That isn't to say that it can't be done, but that has a lot to do with where I am living. Harsh winters in upstate NY make that virtually impossible without greenhouses.
But then that also will put me into a new category: a local-itarian... and the cycle continues.
Glad to see that you're posting again.
It's not as hard as you might think to eat local and vegetarian (even vegan). But it's a far cry from easy. I did a few weeks of the local food challenge thing last summer where the only exceptions I allowed were coffee, salt and olive oil (I live in "Salt City," but go figure, I couldn't find any locally produced salt). It wasn't entirely easy, but it wasn't impossible either. If I'd had more time to bake bread and roll out pasta and that sort of thing, it would have been that much easier.
But regardless, glad you're writing, good post, hope all is well, etc, etc.
Jim
We sir are on polar opposites:
I am a meat eater, I used to hunt too. BUT when I did it I paid homage to nature by stocking my freezer for the winter, I expended a lot of energy doing it, I did not use tractors/ATV's or any of the trophy hunting gear. I did it the way our ancestors and the native American did it. I used a firearm, and as modern of scope as I could, and I used a compound B&A set up. I hiked up to 20 miles for an elk or Mule deer buck, butchered the prey on the spot and packed the meat out my BP. The wildlife in the area enjoyed the scraps. WIN WIN except for the prey.
My point is We as a nation have got soft, we go into the store and partake in which ever food stock we have a taste for. Your decision to not eat meat, is YOUR decision. You made it based on research or feeling or both? YOU made a choice and a stand for something. I am not sure that's a solely LIBERAL Trait.
I am of the Rightwing thinking, sometime EXTREMELY Right. Whenit comes to Crime and Punishment FAR RIGHT, when it comes to our national security and ILLEGAL Immigration..Far Right. Social issues I am a bit more center, I couldnt give a damn if pot was legal or not, abortion should be decided by the mother but it should be illegal to use it as a form of birth control. Too many people these days have no kids and adoption should be FIRST in the decision making process. Cases of Rape/Incest should be left up to the mom.
I see you bike, I did that too... And still occasionally hop on the ride.
I am not sure you understand the difference between Proud and being VAIN, I am proud of what our nation has done worldwide, some bad decisions have been made SURE, but there is no more HUMANE populous on the planet than the USA.
I am proud that we have stood for those that can not stand. You should be too and you should not have to hide it.
I have no issues with your lifestyle choice, being a white/American male myself... NO one is speaking for us, we are the last bastion of insult fodder left in the world and if you think I'm kidding: try watching a sitcom/movie or comic, count the times you hear White,White boy, trailer trash or whatever then tell me I am lying... oh wait and if you throw in Christian, you got a whole new ballgame, but don't say Muslim or Muhammad in any form.
Just drop by because I see you linked to my site. It's not stormfront. I think those guys are like the NAACP or Sharpton Not needed and too far in their directions.
"Everyone has their own truth."
I get where you're going on the labels thing, and I get that with that line you're trying to be tolerant. But tolerance, I think, has to come in moderation. "Everyone has their own truth" and "who am I to judge them" sounds good, sounds humble, but I don't think it quite hits it on the head.
Some truths just ain't as good as others. That might sound arrogant. It might BE arrogant. I don't know.
We nit-pick too often. No doubt about it. There's a great line in a Dead Kennedys song-- "you want to help stop war? well, we reject your application, you crack too many jokes and you eat meat." That craziness gets us nowhere.
But relativism and "everyone has their own truth" gets us nowhere too.
You can see it easiest in the extremes. There are people who don't bat an eye when it comes to sexually exploiting children to make money. You know, everyone has their own truth, who are we to judge?
Bring it in a little. There are people who would never let their children hang out with black kids because they don't believe in all this race mixing. But, you know, they have their own truth, who are we to judge?
There are people like this Bushwack fella who think that white Christian men have got it hard in this country, that no one speaks for us, and that hate groups like Stormfront are roughly equivalent to the NAACP. Everyone has their own truth, however disconnected from reality it might be, and who are we to judge?
If ideas remained forever just ideas, then that would all be fine. Who are we to dictate what people think, to argue with people's opinions?
But ideas don't remain ideas. Ideas fuel action on one level or another. Those actions cause damage. We can sit around being quietly politely tolerant... but people with "other truths" aren't doing that. The idea that it's okay to exploit a kid leads to kids being exploited, the idea that it's okay to kill brown people and take their oil leads to dead brown people, and the idea that white Christians are discriminated against leads to all kinds of nonsense.
I get where you're going. I want to be tolerant. But I really don't want to overdo it.
I loved your post, and as a meat eating man myself, I get what you mean about the labels and sub groups. I think what Todd said was true, that your boat is pointed the right way, so the sub groups and levels of rightness if you will are secondary.
But I agree totally with Jim. It's the same thing that's wrong with thinking majority should rule. It might, but it really shouldn't. If everyone decides it's ok to kill people for being gay, it's still wrong, whether popular or not.
Personally, Id love to go all out veggie, and try to be more into the local and eco friendly foods. I think slowly Im headed that way. Either way, Im glad to see you posting again my man, keep it up this time.
tim
Sal, the idea of a combined blog site for these kind of updates and discussions occurred to me. What do you think of the idea of maybe you me and whoever else would be interested/you would want, going in on a joint blog, where all we would post would be the social commentary, like your doing now.
Tim,
That's just about crazy enough to work!!! You freaking evil genius you!!!
Jim
jockeystreet, your enthusiastic approval of my idea is so unusual that i hesitate to take it as sincere. your the guy that says 'gee thanks' when someone gives you 10304058504 dollars. that might be an exaggeration of sorts, but the point stands.
I feel tricked, and a little embarassed that for a while I believed you'd actually write on this third version of your blog. How did I not see this absentee blogging coming? How damnit?
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