It’s what’s for dinner
I would imagine most people have a complicated relationship with food. Some eat too much and some too little, some are picky and some omnivorous, some like to cook while others prefer someone else cook for them, and some simply don’t have adequate access to food. Many of us waffle amongst these states.
My particular complication has to do with what I eat and what I don’t eat and how best to communicate this with others. I’m often called a vegetarian, however, this would be false. I eat fish. In fact, I love fish. I especially love sushi. How can one eat raw animal flesh and be a vegetarian? But because I don’t eat beef, pork, or poultry, I must be a vegetarian, right? If I explain that, technically, I’m a pescetarian, it simply draws a request for further explanation. (Unfortunately, there are no hyperlinks in the real world.) So, I usually start off by saying something like, “I don’t eat meat that comes from animals with feathers or hooves.” Often, meat-eaters, you know, normal people, still have to think that one over. I’ve been asked, “Does that mean you don’t eat chicken?”
Sometimes I wonder if people even think about where the food they eat comes from. The reasons I don’t eat “from feather nor hoof” do not have anything to do with animal rights, or “animals are people too” etc. It’s a matter of taste and health for me. And I don’t begrudge those who feast on the cornucopia of animal flesh that nature provides. Eat and let eat, I say. And that applies to me, too. Let me eat what I eat and don’t ask me to give you the whole history first, though if you’re reading this, I suppose I already did just that.