Letters to the Editor
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Be a vegan for a week
LW, you've been friends since 1968 and you haven't hashed this subject out with her yet? If it hasn't come up and/or been resolved in nearly 40 years, it isn't going to come up and/or be resolved in this meeting, either.
What makes you think she's going to "demand" you defend your eating habits? That's kind of dramatic, isn't it? I have to wonder if maybe deep down you aren't feeling a little guilty about eating animals, after all.
Personally, I think it's kind of nice to adjust to your friends when it's their turf. So eat vegan with her for a few days. It wouldn't kill you and she'd probably really appreciate it.
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Cary's advice is good as far as it goes
I think Cary is right that you should avoid conflict by asking your friend to accept you as you are. This sounds great.
On the other hand, I would suggest that you share your friend's diet in her presence. Just as I do not swear in front of friends who find it objectionable I do not eat meat, dairy or eggs with my vegan for animal rights reasons friends. Sometimes this means I have to go out in the rain like a smoker to enjoy a fix on my own.
Still, making it clear that you are willing to join your friend in her choices to be with her will show that you respect her moral convictions even if you do not share them.
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Sonofabastard
Hitler was reported to have been a vegetarian when I was a child, when I was a teenager and when I was an adult.
Are there any pictures of Hitler eating meat?
Maybe YOUR Hilter ate meat, but not mine. If he was eating meat then how do you explain his attack on the Soviet Union?
He clearly wasn't thinking straight. A vegetarian diet can lead to shortfall of essential amino acids needed for clear and rational thinking. It is reported that he became a vegetarian in 1931 and just look what happened after that!
"He has the lean and hungry look of a vegetarian, such men are dangerous" - if Shakespeare only had the word vegetarian that play would have made a lot more sense.
But just how far will a vegetarian go? There are people who hand out Vegan flyers where I work and I ahve talked to them and you knwo what? They not only want us to stop eating chickens, cows, pigs, turkeys, lambs, etc., but they want us to let those species GO EXTINCT!!! So they won't suffer domestication we must put them out of their misery.
Sound familiar?
As for heart disease and cancer, the ways of the lord are mysterious and it beats starving.
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Perspective, people
I am not a vegan. I do consider myself an animal lover and I'm not a big fan of meat so I do not eat it very often (I do love me some gyros, though).
It's nice to be socially conscious, but I hope the vegans with superiority complexes are also doing something to better the lives of other humans. Because the day that there are HUMAN rights for all (see: Darfur, Cuba, New Orleans to name a few), that is when I will really care about saving all the little animals.
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Justification
I refer to my Vegetarian friends as Food Freaks (behind their backs) and being 75 yrs old I'm still alive and healthy because I've followed their nutritional advice for 50 years. My craving for meat has been accepted by them without justification. Protein is essential. Meat is the best source since it contains all essential amino acids. Vegetables are not complete sources of necessary amino acids and must be combined.
Food is Protein, Carbohyrdrate and Fat. Our Soil, Water and Air are
becoming polluted so my Organic Freak Friends advise me about sources that are certified as safe. I can't afford Organic Meat, Vegetables, and Fruit so I often eat with them and supply my labor as a Mechanic, Plumber, Carpenter, and Electrician.
There is very little table conversation, mostly the sound of teeth grinding and gutteral sounds of delight. Dessert is Organic Wine and endless arguments lasting for hours about Religion and Politics. The sun goes down and we part as friends. True friends. Screw your
stupid thoughts and ideas I still love your ugly face. Life is too often
a living hell and I have to escape my reality and read comments at
Salon and I thank you all and hope you can be merry eating, drinking
arguing and posting until death do us finally part. Thanks, John
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Re: cats and friendship
mickisue wrote, You can call your cat your best friend, but the cat will not call YOU its best friend--cats are not humans and they don't have the spaces in the brain where HUMANS process the idea of "friend."
First, comparative psychology is ever reducing the gap between humans and the rest of the animal world. So we cannot make assumptions about the feelings of animals, at least at the level of mammals. Since we know that cats must imprint on humans at a very early age in order to interact with us (rather than be feral), we can assume there is some neurological sense of "them" and "us" which cats have.
Second, emotions are a useful evolutional development, and it's improbable that animals which share many characteristics of human brains (serotonin receptors, for example), do not experience emotions.
Birds are also turning out to be quite interesting from a cognitive perspective. I suggest a little more reading on comparative psychology before making sweeping comments.
That said, while cats appear to have a sense of inclusion and emotion (including affection), it's unlikely that the linguistic, abstract concept of friendship is something a cat experiences. But my ability to feel compassion for another living creature has never been limited to my evaluation of their abstract thinking skills. Otherwise, quite a humans might not make the cut, let alone other animals ;-)
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Nature Nurture or Narcissism?
I will be very happy when genetic research finally can spell out for us the foods our genes require for maximum nourishment and health. We all come from different genetic stock: My Lebanese-heritage friend thrives best on a diet with minimal meat and lots of chickpeas and olive oil. I do best on high animal protein, can't digest soy, and get sick on cheese. Trying to make me a vegetarian would be like trying to make a wolf a vegan.
If someone feels they thrive best as a vegan or vegetarian, then God bless them. We all have individual paths to health. But it is food, not religious doctrine and to impose one's (probably) genetically wired food preferences on others seems arrogant and thoughtless.