Here I go...

OK. So I suppose this is my first official blog. I have to start somewhere, and while I like the idea of blogging, I find it odd that I would be writing in such a public forum. But that is the idea right? I am writing out my thoughts and feelings for other people to read. I feel like I should have something incredibly profound to say, but I'm afraid I don't. Maybe this will come in time - when I get used to the concept of blogging.


I have decided to give up eating meat. Years ago - probably when I was in high school and at some point in college, I gave up eating meat for the simple reason that it was difficult for me to eat something that had a face. Eventually, my craving for a hamburger overwhelmed my idealistic determination to be kind to animals.


Brian went on his annual deer hunting trip on Friday. I absolutely detest that he goes hunting - even if it is only once a year. The idea of him sitting up in some tree, waiting for an unsuspecting deer (why would it be suspicious - it doesn't have any natural predators) to wander by so he can shoot and kill it really pisses me off. It seems so inhumane and callous. So, when he announces he is going hunting, I hope against hope that he doesn't see a single deer - let alone shoot one. And I find some consolation in the fact that he has to get up at 4am to go sit in the cold for hours only to return home empty handed.


Each year, as he prepares for this testosterone driven "adventure", I become irritated at what seems like a huge waste of time. I have to give him this credit: he isn't killing a deer so he can have the head stuffed and mounted on the wall. I would make him move into his own apartment before I allowed him to hang a deer head on one of our walls. He at least hunts for the deer with the sole purpose of consuming the meat. Regardless, I loathe the idea of hunting.


This year he pointed out that his hunting for a deer to eat the meat is no different than me going to Publix to pick up bloody hunks of raw meat to make beef stew (one of my favorite meals this time of year). And the more I thought about it, the more he seems right. I haven't slaughtered the cows or the chickens I have eaten over the years, but I imagine the conditions these animals have endured prior to being killed for human consumptions is less humane than the deer wandering about and being killed without warning.


I have decided to stop eating meat. And we'll see how I do. I've never really been much of a big meat eater anyway. If I had the choice between a steak and a bowl of brussel sprouts, I would choose the sprouts any day of the week. No matter how stinky and horrible my children think they are, I love them! Delicious.


But here is my next problem ... I'm sure I have shoes and purses made out of leather. How can I use these objects - which once had faces - but not consume their bodies as nourishment. It seems worse to tote around a dead animal as an accessory than it does to eat one for nutritional purposes. This is something I am going to have to figure out. I don't want to be a hypocrite.