Theos-Talk Archives (February 1997 Message tl00511)

> From: Thoa Tran <thoa@withoutwalls.com>
>
> I really think that any time that someone voices an opinion is an
> imposition of views (passive or aggressive, meaning is same).  Thus, I know
> I've been guilty many times, as I am now.  And I greatly enjoy it when
> somebody voices it straight from the heart, and not covered in roses.
> Roses are nice, but only if they're genuine, and some are covered with
> thorns.  Thus, Doss, Chuckie, Alan, Ann, etc., are all imposing on us.

Maybe we humans are insecure about someone else doing something
different than we are doing.  If we are vegetarians or meat-eaters, we
try to get those people who are doing the opposite of what we have
programmed ourselves to be the same because we are insecure.  If there
is one other person in the world eating, thinking or looking different than we
do, we have to set up some kind mechanism to either convert them or
destroy them.
>
> When I was a meat eater, I resented statements that meat eating will
> prevent you from being in touch with your higher self, as if us meat eaters
> were doomed to be mired in our muck.  As I witnessed, vegetarianism,
> proclamations of doing good for man/womankind, and spirituality does not
> prevent people from talking badly of one another, does not prevent people
> from being control hungry, and does not prevent conflicts among people and
> within themselves.
>
> When I became mostly vegetarian (still love sushi), I kept on being asked
> whether I would like to share in the meat dishes by people who knew my
> diet.  Worse still, sometimes they would literally wave a plate of steak
> right under my nose to tease me.  This is not because I lectured to them
> about vegetarianism.  In fact, due to my meat eating past, I am very
> sensitive about staying quiet about it, and making it blend in as much as
> possible.  When I am invited to other people's house for dinner, I do not
> request special treatment.  I just quietly eat the vegetables.  On the
> other hand, my meat eating friends won't stay quiet about it.  In fact,
> this weekend, I went out for Dim Sum with members of this carnivorous
> household, and THEY wouldn't stop talking about how good meat was and why
> on earth anyone would want to eat vegetables (with statements like, "Look,
> Thoa, there's something green approaching.")  Finally, I told them that if
> they keep this up, they're going to start hearing the virtues of
> vegetarianism from me.  I'm going to start writing odes to broccoli.

When I attended vegetarian luncheons at the LCC, I would always make
a vegetarian dish, preparing it the night before with great care.  It was something
usually so loaded with carbohydrates I couldn't eat it or only a small measured
piece.  At the luncheon I would watch everyone else wolf down the high carbo
casseroles and sweet desserts while I say there with my thermos of high
protein, a modest salad and a LaCroix sparkling water.  At every retreat the church
had out of town, I brought all my own food to get me through the weekend,
while they kept eating the high carbos that would me into a lower blood sugar
condition.  I learned early on NEVER to eat anything I brought in
front of the group in the regular dining room, because one time some very
prominent theosophical woman started screaming at me at the table, without
even asking me why I was doing it.  Guess she just thought I was a trouble
maker.  She has sinced passed on without ever knowing the pain and
embarassment she caused me, but I always ate my meals in my room at
any of the retreats after that.

That incident told me that I was an outcast
and should never show my medical weakness in the face of all these
high and holy people who call themselves vegetarians.  Evidently,.God has
singled me out to be a pariah in the midst of all the spiritual people I would
love to sit down at the table at.  He made me different, now I understand, to
realize there are things far worse than eating meat or only veggies.  That is
making another human being feel like scum because they don't do something
you do.

-AEB

-AEB