on being a vegetarian asshole

you know what I mean, right? Those vegetarian/vegan assholes, who like to remind everyone about the flesh they are consuming? I don't want to be one of those people.

But ya'll, it's really hard.

Here's the thing - I ate meat for my whole life until about 6 months ago. I loved steak. A good steak..I mean, it is a delicious thing. But one day, I stopped eating meat. I don't miss it. I can't imagine eating it again. I eat fish and eggs and cheese, so I'm actually a pesca-ova-lacto-vegetarian, I suppose?  The fish thing is borderline. I get seriously pukey if I have to de-skin a piece of fish, and I could not bring myself to eat a lobster tail at Christmas dinner. But crab cakes? Okay.

This is so...this is weird, right? It's not like I'm newly introduced to vegetarianism, my sister went veg at like 12 and full vegan in college. This is not a new idea to me.

So, back to being an asshole. I really really really hate the meat producing industry. All of it. Its despicable. If I ever ate meat again, which is really not likely, I'd only eat locally raised humanely raised and killed meat. But dude, I can't. Just typing that, I can't. I can't eat something that will interact with me and that someone had to kill. At least a fish won't like, lick my hand or something if I try to feed it.

So, yeah, here I am, and I'm having a hard time not being judgy and stuff - not to anyone personally, no, just to the societal norms that make it okay for the system to exist as it does. I suppose this is normal new vegetarian progress, yes? I certainly remember my sister going through it.

It just seems really insane that I had such a monumental change of habit. I mean, I'm happy with it, I'm proud of it, it makes me think about what else I can change if I just try - or not try, I guess. I don't think I'm better than anyone, really. I think I'm being responsible about my contribution to the world, or rather, what I take from the world for my own consumption.  That's not to say someone who eats meat is acting irresponsibly - I just urge everyone to put some thought into where their food comes from. I know that not everyone has access to or can afford the kind of produce we have available to us here in the DC area, nor can everyone pop into the Whole Foods for a shop a couple of times a week like a big fat yuppie (I'm talking about me, hi).

 ...and I won't try to talk here about the kind of costs and statistics many have analyzed around fresh v. processed food. Just, you know, think about it.

gah.