"You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I couldn't have found a better quote to start this post, because it's my own complicity with which I struggle. For me the complicity is with a system that inefficiently consumes far more (plant-based) food than the amount of (animal-based) food it produces. It's complicity with a system that creates through assembly-line slaughter practices a great deal of pollution and disease. If I could afford to eat local, sustainable meat from farms and animals I could get to know then I would do so in moderation, but the frustrating reality is that for anyone not at least well into middle class buying local meat is one more big stretch on top of the big stretch to buy whole foods instead of processed foods.
That stated, we do go out to eat from time to time because we've learned that if we don't treat ourselves on occasion we end up caught in a cycle where we are very strict for a while and then we binge, which is neither sustainable nor healthy. I've made a very intentional effort to get myself past this little niggling inner voice that tries to convince me that eating a mostly or entirely plant-based diet would be boring and yucky. On those occasions when we go out to eat, I find the vegetarian options and order from there. The reason for this is that I want to have some very good, delicious experiences with vegetarian options to prove to me that I can feel satisfied with what I just ate both physically and emotionally. I want to experience good vegetarian options that make me both full and happy. So far so good. We've also purchased a decent little vegetarian cook book and started buying ingredients to try some of what look like very yummy vegetarian and vegan options.
Now that we live in the same town as my graduate school, we are really taking bicycle serious as a mode of transportation. We finally got around to fixing up our bikes (with the exception of replacing the seats with more comfortable commuting options), attaching the bike trailer to one of our bikes for our son to ride with us, getting bike helmets (safety first!), and deciding to start going for family bike rides with the goal of using them as our primary means of transport around the city. It's only 1.5 miles from home to school for me. If I could once commute 5 miles each way by bike between home and work, 1.5 miles each way should be easy enough to work back toward. Here goes something!
