A Foot in Two Worlds
Back in the 90s I was a vegetarian for four years. That’s a whole big story in itself — why I switched to it (for ethics) and why I switched back to eating meat. What I can say is that during those years I was able to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight, and my doctor at the time thought it was a great choice.
Now, given that my wife is on a pureed food diet, I end up preparing our meals two ways. That gave me the chance to go back to vegetarianism for myself. I already know how to prepare a meal with meat for her, while the sides — plus a little extra — make a complete vegetarian meal for me.
Why am I doing this? In the 90s I had read about how badly food animals were being treated. I switched to vegetarianism while I spent time trying to understand the issue. I didn’t switch back because I resolved that problem; I switched back because I was accidentally served a beef burrito instead of a bean burrito — and I couldn’t stop myself from wolfing it down. I decided the body must want meat even when the mind doesn’t.
As time went on, more humane meat options started showing up in supermarkets. They cost more, but my wife and I ate very little meat anyway. Did you know that on a meat-based diet, you only need about four ounces of meat on your plate — not the twenty-ounce portions restaurants like to serve?
So along with this new opportunity to return to vegetarianism comes my realization that animals are not unfeeling machines. They have emotions, feel pain, can suffer, and many have a surprising level of intelligence. More and more I see animals as beings, not food.
I know I have a foot in two worlds now — because I prepare meat for my wife, I can’t make that decision for her — yet I’m feeling more strongly than ever that vegetarianism is the way to go.
Maybe that’s what change really looks like — not a single leap of conviction, but a slow turning of the heart. One small, daily choice at a time, moving toward kindness.
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