Lent, Day 20: Halfway Through!

Wow… as of today, I’ll be halfway through with Lent.  That’s an amazing thing, really.   I don’t know if it’s just the fact that Lent is so much longer than my usual 21-day run, or if avoiding eating meat is really just that much harder than I expected, but I really think this vegetarian thing has been one of the more challenging efforts I’ve made so far.   Seems like every evening I’m going through a sort of letdown when I realize that whatever yummy meat-based course I’ve planned for the family is not something I will be eating myself.

It really is unfortunate, too.   One would kind of think that given my affection for animals that I’d tend toward the PETA mentality more than I actually do.   I mean, sure… my background is in Biology and I’ve witnessed animal flesh in far more gruesome circumstances than simply preparing and eating meat would normally involve (Thanksgiving turkey preparation notwithstanding), so maybe it’s natural that I’m not more bothered by it than I am.  (For heaven’s sake, in Dr. Tomasi’s Physiology class, we dissected live turtles!)  But still…

Given that this Vegetarian thing is part of a religious observance, I found myself looking up Biblical precedents for it.  I know there are actually some theologians out there who maintain that we were never meant to EAT meat to begin with, and that carnivorism was a consequence of the Fall.  I am not entirely decided on this question myself, but I do tend to find that I believe that the fact that we CAN get all of the nutrition we need from plants is not a coincidence.  I know that meat is a much more efficient way to get a lot of the proteins we need, but the fact remains that the more plants we eat and the more animal stuff we avoid, the healthier we tend to be.    It just makes me wonder.

I did find this today: http://www.all-creatures.org/cva/default.htm .  Thats the website for the Christian Vegetarian Association, and apparently they hold this view and aspire toward what they call the ‘Peaceful Kingdom’… The lion lying with the lamb and all of that.  How plants feel about their role in such a kingdom is not exactly explored, but presumably they’re okay with it.   I didn’t delve much into the site beyond reading their mission statement and exploring a couple of links, but it seems interesting.

Does all of this introspection and spiritual brou-ha-ha mean I’m considering becoming a vegetarian full-time once Lent ends?

No.   Right now I miss meat too much.