Like most of us I try very hard not to have too much waste at Christmas. It was easy when the children were small and especially when they were adolescents ,other wise known as human dustbins! The various dogs have helped in years past but Crispin is now old too and though he would eat most things it has a disastrous effect on his digestive system!
So I did not buy too much for us..I ate my last Christmas dinner yesterday after church when we went out to our local and guess what! that makes 6 altogether this year! But I did buy and cook a ham, and crab and prawns and pates of all kinds and we have made a good stab at them...but this morning when, having taken down the Christmas trees, I had to try to clear out the fridge!
Oh dear! Things came to light I'd forgotten about. So now I am full of the guilt always associated with having food over when other people are not lucky.
There was one bright spot though. I found some peas which looked viable, to go with the fish pie I'd got in the oven. I took them out, washed them and put them in a pan. I noticed some white shoots at this stage and realised that they were in fact sprouting.! Now this did cheer me up because I spent years as a vegetarian which was mostly economic. Its easier to feed a growing family on good food when you don't eat meat!
But the problem is that I have always felt guilt about this too. I don't eat much meat now but I do eat some these day and enjoy it. And I am not actually racked with guilt...Protestant guilt does not ravage lives..I can live with it! But I felt better after looking at the sprouting peas! It means they were alive.
I was about to kill them by boiling them! That took me on to the thought that most things we eat are also alive....no way round that one...even all the vegetables we can fool ourselves into thinking are a more ethical choice are not!
I know that fruits are meant to be eaten so no guilt there...but what residual guilt remains about killing things in order to survive is lessened this morning!
3 comments:
I have some sympathy with the 'sprouting peas are alive' feeling but where does one draw the line?
A sort of vegetarian for nearly half my life - I eat no meat or meat by-products, but do eat some fish. Not shell-fish but several others.
This was purely on the animal ethic principle so how do I justify eating anything which has had independant life?
Simply, I don't! Someone once told me that there exists a Buddhist based extreme religion
which does not allow killing or eating anything which has had life. Surely I said, this would mean that death from starvation would follow?
Precisely, was the answer.
I think we have enough guilt which is soundly based in our lives without looking for more.
My issue is more one of sustainability. Plant-based diets consume far fewer resources to bring to the table. We have the ability to feed every person on this planet with nutritious food AND help save the environment.
Even minor adjustments toward a greener lifestyle contribute to this end.
As a committed veggie for the past 15 years, I have to agree with sustainability being one of the considerations I have, although, I originally became vegetarian for medical reasons, eating meat and fish was inflaming a colon problem.
Now, I know more about it, I am convinced for the case for even veganism, but just can't give up on dairy. Oh Well, I am trying, no guilt involved.
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