03-24-2010, 05:24 PM
"Even a mild discussion of meat eating versus vegetarianism tends to elicit very strong defensive reactions in many, many people, spiritual or otherwise. I, too, have had several experiences where I just asked for the vegetarian menu in a restaurant or made a simple request to leave the meat off of my pasta that sparked a defensive reaction in someone else at the table."
Such interesting posts
i don't really know how to do quotes from huge posts so i've just copied and pasted pablisimo's text above. what you describe is so very very common for vegetarians, it never ceases to amaze me, but in fact my expereinces in these situations are often more aggressive, along the lines that monica describes where i suddenly feel under attack by people who are offended that i don't eat meat.
however, just to share an anecdote, i had an interesting experience on a christmas night out a few months ago with 12 butchers, only one of whom i really knew and even he didn't know i was veggie (even though i do the odd piece of work for him). anyway... i asked if there was a veggie option rather than a turkey christmas meal, and after the sound of jaws dropping had passed i had a really interesting, warm and supportive conversation with all these butchers, who were intrigued at why a vegetarian would feel so comfortable with them and would indeed actively support one of them - i mainly help the guy to win awards which he quite rightly deserves.
having had these horrible 'attack' experiences in the past i was genuinely quite worried about going on the meal and would probably have wriggled out of it if it had been easy for me to do so. but i'm really glad i didn't. what was interesting to me was that it was me that had the preconceptions about how these people would react to my choices, they were actually very open
Such interesting posts
i don't really know how to do quotes from huge posts so i've just copied and pasted pablisimo's text above. what you describe is so very very common for vegetarians, it never ceases to amaze me, but in fact my expereinces in these situations are often more aggressive, along the lines that monica describes where i suddenly feel under attack by people who are offended that i don't eat meat. however, just to share an anecdote, i had an interesting experience on a christmas night out a few months ago with 12 butchers, only one of whom i really knew and even he didn't know i was veggie (even though i do the odd piece of work for him). anyway... i asked if there was a veggie option rather than a turkey christmas meal, and after the sound of jaws dropping had passed i had a really interesting, warm and supportive conversation with all these butchers, who were intrigued at why a vegetarian would feel so comfortable with them and would indeed actively support one of them - i mainly help the guy to win awards which he quite rightly deserves.
having had these horrible 'attack' experiences in the past i was genuinely quite worried about going on the meal and would probably have wriggled out of it if it had been easy for me to do so. but i'm really glad i didn't. what was interesting to me was that it was me that had the preconceptions about how these people would react to my choices, they were actually very open