Monday, November 12, 2007

Nothing

On Saturday night, since Alex always posts at normal times during the day (and me at ridiculous hours such as this – sorry!) I panicked and thought I had to post Saturday night. In my frantic push for ideas for something to write about, before I realized it was not my day to post, I came up with - nothing. I had exactly NO ideas on what to write about, which made me pretty nervous. Then today, my actual day for posting, I again struggled with finding a topic. I point this out as a good thing, however, not a troubling thing. First let me say that Alex and I make this look easy. We come up with brilliant ideas pretty much every time we post (your comments reassure that), and it’s not as easy as it seems. It takes an inquisitive mind – someone who notices small details about their diet and how it makes them feel, or on the contrary pieces together large broad themes that arise from personal experiences. We gots skills.


But today I am not ashamed to admit I have nothing to write about. And let me tell you why. It means that, since my last post, I have lived essentially two full days as a vegetarian with nothing significant whatsoever happening to me. It has become so incredibly normal for me to not eat meat that I can’t even find anything abnormal or interesting to talk about with regard to it.

Let me give you a few examples of how normal it is. The other night whilst hanging out (whilst is a word, look it up, its definition is on my blog idefinewords.blogspot.com) with a few friends we all suddenly became hungry at a horrible hour – 1 in the morning. However, instead of sucking it up and living with our pangs, we decided to order Papa John’s pizza for delivery (now accepting convenience points! How amazing is that! And the garlic dipping sauce keeps PJ’s in business, hands down). When asked what kind of toppings do I like, meat didn’t even cross my mind. I would have said sausage or pepperoni or really even meat lovers if I were asked this question a couple weeks ago, but that night I said “cheese; I don’t eat meat.” So normal.

Today, while in a burrito place in Portland, Maine (random day trip with roommate and a friend of ours. It was bomb.) (oh and Portland is known for their Mexican food…blame our broken borders if you want, but those illegal aliens (what an absurd term for human beings) flock to the similar climate and culture of Maine) I looked at the menu and immediately went to the vegetarian options. When my roommate said he was getting the chicken quesadilla, I actually said “gross.” Gross?! Me?! About my favorite bird in the world (for eating. Favorite bird in the world for friendship – big bird. Second reference in two posts, sweet)?? I have changed! Let me say though that the sweet potato burrito (albeit not Mexican in the slightest, for as we all know, sweet potatoes originally came from Mr. and Mrs. Sweet’s farm in Idaho) was phenomenal. Absolutely delicious. Didn’t miss the meat once.

What does this all mean? For one thing, it means my creative juices weren’t flowing this evening (flowin’ like molasses in August, which is still pretty slow. Have you even seen molasses flow?) and I couldn’t come up with a better topic (especially after Alex’s incredibly thoughtful and clearly presented discourse on solving just about every world problem ever; or at least attempting it.. bravo, that was a great post, in all seriousness). Following Alex’s incredibly deep post I sit here and make up stories about the origin of sweet potatoes or tell you about my favorite bird. Where do I get off? (Next stop.. Thanks, I get confused.) But it also means that I am a vegetarian. It means that maybe I can do this after T-day (you’ve heard of D-day..this involves more eating and less killing, unless you count the turkey, but you don't do you!). This may be boring for some to read, as I have talked about this before, but I will do one other thing I have done before. I urge you to try something like this. You can do it! And even if you don’t stick with it, you will gain perspective you never had before. And empathy.

I will leave with an anecdote from a party I attended this evening. I was discussing this very experiment with a fellow vegetarian at the party, a friend of a friend, when the subject of the source of food came up. I told her that I had just posted on that (http://meatmeetsgreen.blogspot.com – check it out to see my post! You...you’re already there….? Oh.) I told her that’s what this is all really about for me. Being conscious and aware of where our food comes from. I then began on my rant on bottled water (especially Fiji water. I will destroy you Fiji water). Apparently I ranted a bit loud, and when I said “I hate Fiji water with an intense passion” a girl nearby overheard and came to the defense of this horrid product (and bottled water in general). She grew up on it, she said. “Never before BU had I drank non-bottled water.” Come on, really?? Can’t be possible. Either way she claimed to be able to tell the difference in taste. I challenged her and said in a blind taste test she’d never be able to tell. We went back and forth a bit in a civil manner (during which she admitted to recycling and using public transportation as signs of her positive lifestyle choices for the old environment, and I gave credit where credit was due). But she wouldn’t budge on this water issue. And I realized something. I could spend hours, days, years, eons, seconds (wait..) trying to convince her of the evils of this “free-substance in a bottle!,” but as long as I lived I would never convince her of it (only to convince her posthumously!! Dun dun dun…. No, really, never). There are some things we just can’t convince people of in this world. Finding that distinction, knowing when to forge ahead versus abandon ship, is both hard and crucial. It is this reason that I do not advocate the preaching by vegetarians to non-vegetarians – it will never prove fruitful (or vege-ful.. no fruitful, definitely fruitful.). Since it would be impossible to convince her to never drink bottled water again, we have to work at the source, and make free water more accessible, and encourage recycling when bottled water is necessary. Until then, we will have to put up with the Fiji water drinking, SUV driving, global warming deniers. Until we can make the alternative (and correct choice for the environment) easier for the consumer, then we will have to kick our feet in the dust and “hope” that people will come to their senses. I got a lotta hope, but I want to act too, and see results. Let's do that, too.

3 comments:

Alex Blanski said...

Way to use the word 'posthumous'in a post. I am grateful for you making it a part of my day.

Nick N. said...

Since you've had people complain about the length of your posts, I thought I'd give you some pointers on how to shorten things up a bit. For instance, let's take this pair of sentences as an example:

There are some things we just can’t convince people of in this world. Finding that distinction, knowing when to forge ahead versus abandon ship, is both hard and crucial.

Here's how it could have been written in a manner that would have conveyed the same meaning but taken up less space and valuable time of the readers.

There's stuff we can't conv those peeps bouts. Finding distincts, and knowin when to chill and when to dip, is hard and croosh.

Just knocked off six words while shortening many of the words included. That may not seem like a lot, but over the course of an entire post, it will lead you to salvation.

Alex Blanski said...

Devin, please put up that picture of meat you describe in a previous post. It sounds ridiculously amazing and I have yet to see it.