Vegetarian = light, healthy human being

I’ve been thinking about vegetarianism for a while. I suppose when you live with a vegetarian (and I am not one), it is somewhat unavoidable because every meal, I consciously consider my partner’s needs before cooking something. It has definitely made me a much more conscientious cook. I could never understand people who could have a salad as their entire meal, especially in cold weather, at night. I do that often now. I guess I’ve gotten used to that feeling of supreme lightness that comes from a vegetarian diet – although if I would eat Indian food all the time, that probably would not be the case. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot more these days because I am in a town full of hippies and for every Mexican restaurant proudly advertising asadas, carne, res, cerdo, puerco, chorizo, pollo and the like, there are at least as many vegan/vegetarian/organic/we soak quinoa overnight for you restaurants serving things like empanadas stuffed with curried vegetables. Some good old hippies settled here a long time ago and started businesses that cater to the booming green eyed tourists of today.

There are many reasons to be vegetarian I suppose, but the most interesting I heard was from some British travelers who work with animal welfare. They travel around to different countries, on their own trek around the world but engage with the local culture in the form of protection for animals. They told a great story about being in India and finding a street dog that just needed to be put to sleep to end its suffering. They looked everywhere for someone who would do that and were eventually told to go to the gypsies. So they did, and a gypsy maestro cocked a gun and shot that poor little dog and then everyone ran away (perhaps to avoid being chased by the dog’s spirit). Thus they are vegan; no wool, no leather, no meat, no dairy… There is something about being in countries where animals live and die in such close proximity to humans. They wander the street just like I do and when I see the suffering that street animals can endure, it definitely brings about a feeling of responsibility toward my consumption of meat. Markets here are full of live chickens hung upside down waiting for slaughter. Everywhere sort of smells like flesh. That is enough to give me a lot of thought about the human capacity for cruelty toward living things.