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Vegetarianism

Less a week ago Joy and I had a Mojo Rotisserie Chicken from Publix. It smelled so good, and we were both hungry, but what really made the decision for us was the fact that I had suggested having one for dinner last Thursday night, but did not buy one. That left the idea in Joy’s head and you know what happens when you leave ideas cluttered about in a woman’s mind… they typically find their way out and into some sort of fruition.

When we finally sat down to eat the chicken we both realized that someone else had always “prepared” rotisserie chicken for us, and we were pretty much at a loss of what to do with this nearly whole bird sitting between us. So, it fell on me to essentially quarter the bird with a 9″ chef’s knife.
Note: I have taken anatomy, which was complete with dissecting all the way up to a male cat and a female dog. In our anatomy class we dissected so many different things I was suprised that there were never any protests of any kind. The point is that I was thinking that this wouldn’t be that tough, because I’d carved a turkey, dissected a few amphibians, dissected my own cat, worked with partners to dissect a large bitch, did a class demonstration with my professor, which involved removing fetal pigs from a sow that had died pregnant… you get the picture by now. It was an awesome class — opportunity-wise. End Note.
So, I started out breaking through the bird’s sternum. {Crunch} (Joy makes a Mastercard face) Then I have two halves, and Joy would very much like it if I could seperate the leg from the breast. So, I turn the bird outward and set to work on that. (More faces. Constant shift of POV from my face to what I am doing to this dead bird.)
Done.
Joy is satisfied, and she sets to work eating her portion and I set to work eating mine. I use my fingers (which is what I often used when dissecting) and begin to take my meal apart muscle by muscle. Sure enough, just as Doc (my professor) had foretold, I was thinking of the names of the muscles as I was eating. After I had eaten one quarter I set to work on my second quarter and I really got into naming everything in my head. This was the thigh / leg, and I was finally disgusted. Why was I eating this? Each piece of the chicken started to taste weirder and weirder as my imagination took hold and altered my perception a bit. I no longer wanted any more chicken — ever.
So, I quietly finished up my chicken (I didn’t want to spoil it for Joy because she was really digging in,) and called it a meal.
The point of this whole story is to show the events leading up to the cause of my epiphany about vegetarians (or reepiphany, because I have gone through this before.) After that experience, I can really understand why some people don’t particularly like eating meat. I’m definately not a big fan of chicken, rock cornish hens, dove, rabbit, you get the picture. I don’t like eating flesh when one non-sea animal is my portion size. In fact, I don’t even really like to eat fish and shell fish that are small — when I think about it.
This is my concession to vegetarians.
I still don’t empathize with Vegans yet. I mean, didn’t they start out on Mum’s milk?
I’m definately still not into political vegitarianism either. Probably because the political part of it fails to appeal to any of my American / Patriotic feelings, my religious beliefs, or my logic. It is almost successful in appealing to me emotionally though, because it is (was) an animal that is being killed and eaten, but I tend to question the notion that death is inherently a bad thing. In my little opinion, it is OK to be vegetarian until you go around pouting about limited food choices, trying to convert/disgust others while they’re eating, or generally being socially unacceptable in some way because you have made this dietary choice. I am much more impressed by people who’ve chosen their lifestyle/dietstyle, and have limited the intrusion of said choice in their social interactions as much as possible.

Posted by David under Uncategorized |