Meat eaters

Now, as Karl reminds me all the time, I do eat meat. But I am not a Meat Eater^TM. My mother happily taught me to eat a lot of chicken and fish, and then dating a vegetarian pushed me over the edge to where I eat meat only a few meals a week, and even then it’s usually turkey sandwiches or something. The inexplicable rules I use to decide on which foods to eat would seem to make me something other than a vegetarian. One friend suggested “arbitrarian”. Suits me.

So I’m reading a recent Julie/Julia where she dares to make a dinner with no hunks of partly charred animal flesh in it. Her husband, who is a Meat Eater^TM whines about it.

Now, I’ve been pulling for Julie and Eric for a while. She’s crazy, and I love her for it. And he seems to be taking pretty good care of that crazy lady in his house, which pleases me. But today, I’m not an Eric fan. Entire meals without meat can knock your socks off. It’s just a matter of being flexible and understanding that there’s more than one way to gather together the right number of calories, protein, nutrients, fats, and flavors it takes to serve dinner.

I value flexability and adaptability, and I’m coming to see that I don’t have a lot of patience with people who are not willing to try something new or see something a different way. I think I’m going to try working on that, because the ultimate form of being flexible and adaptable yourself is to be able to respect others and deal with them.

Even if they are Meat Eaters^TM.