I’m a Meatatarian

What are your feelings about eating meat?

In grade school at the Immaculate Conception of Saint Mary school (known more commonly as St. Mary’s), we often heard the delivery of animals to Fisher’s Meat Market. They slaughtered the animals on site, in the back. As I observe in my book Immaculate Misconceptions: Tales of Catholic School, we sometimes felt an affinity with those animals, depending on what nun we had that year.

When I lived in California, I encountered several vegetarians. Once I went to a vegetarian potluck, and when I left I wound up rocked back in my seat with the window open, feeling quite unwell. Something didn’t agree with me, it seems. I don’t think it was vegetarianism in general, just some food item in particular.

And I have no problem with vegetarians or vegans; that’s a personal decision, just as eating meat is. I lived in a rooming house in Berkeley, and never realized that my cooking bacon was tempting one of the roomies who was a vegetarian; he never said a word, and when I found out I appreciated that he never proselytized me.

And then there were friends who would cook vegetarian meals for me. One was a broccoli and pasta dish. I guess I shouldn’t have said, “This would be so good with ham in it!” Actually that entree—with ham—became a regular choice later on.

Meat is a large part of my diet. I do prefer less fatty meats and attempt to limit my beef intake and to up my fish intake, but I never consider a meatless Monday or an all-vegetarian meal. I do wish that animals were raised and slaughtered (that is really the only accurate verb, isn’t it?) in a more ethical way.

I’m also curious how we might adapt to lab-grown meat. If it does actually help save the planet I’m all for it, and would like to see it adopted for more widespread use.

Just stay away from the Soylent Green; I hear it’s made of people!

This appears to have been an impressionistic, stream of consciousness, somewhat scattershot answer to the prompt, so perhaps I’d better have another cup of coffee before continuing with my day. Bon appetit!