This is not food; this is life.

Last night, while making dinner, something that my nutrition professor posted in one of our discussion boards kept running through my head, “the hypocrisy of not be willing to eat my [dog] but was okay with eating other animals” and suddenly found myself repulsed by the flesh I was holding in my hands. I swallowed that feeling, tried to push it aside, but I don’t think I can. I’ve flirted with the idea of becoming loosely vegetarian in the past and it always seemed too difficult, too time consuming, too expensive. I always had an excuse why it was simply easier for me to continue eating meat. My portion control is down pat. My choices are so much healthier than they used to be, but still there was a tiny little voice nagging me to consider an alternative way of relating with the world.

First, an explanation: I tend to identify with the spiritual concept of animism – in that I believe everything has a spark of whatever it is that makes life alive. From the tiniest seed to a fully self-aware human being (because let’s face it, not all of us are fully self-aware), I believe that there is no separation from that which I imprecisely call ‘the divine’. I prefer not to use terms like ‘god’ for two reasons: one, because I feel that it attempts to define that which we truly cannot comprehend and two, I feel that naming such an energy separates the individual from truly realizing his or her own divinity.

That said I don’t want to eat meat anymore. I simply don’t. I ate the chicken last night and every time I took a bite, I felt something inside me recoil and even now, I feel badly that I did so. I am fully cognoscente of the issues with ethical treatment of animals, I understand the energy cost that was expended to put that chicken in my hand, and I recognize the health risks that are present in a diet laden with meats. This is not, however, motivated by such reasons. This is motivated by the realization that it is selfish of me to consume that which I do not NEED and arrogant to continue doing so with all these facts on the tip of my tongue. I have long understood that I am fully capable of leading a healthy, vibrant and delicious life without the flesh of another being. It is time for me to commit to that idea. I have always been grateful to that which gives me life, but I find that my rationalization for eating the flesh of another species to be more and more insubstantial for the purpose of pacifying any conversation that might transpire to attempt to talk me out of the removal of animal flesh from my diet. This is a choice I am ready to make.


***EDIT***
After more contemplation, on the matter - if food is life and life is food then, there I believe there is no distinction between the form in which the life takes. Instead of worrying about vegetarian or omnivore or even carnivore, I'm more content in being aware of where my food comes from and being grateful for the life that was given to sustain me.