vegetarian confessions

by Jenny Emard

As a vegetarian, I consider myself a minority amongst others in respect to my eating habits.   Despite the ever-rising popularity of vegetarianism and like diets in California at least, it can still be difficult to find dishes to eat in many restaurants, and I won't even begin to expound upon how it is when I travel.   What I find worse than this difficulty is the reaction I get from meat-eaters when they find out that I refrain from consuming animal flesh.

It is not as if I preach to others about what they should or shouldn't do, and often people don't realize I am vegetarian until long after they know me, because they finally realize I am only eating meatless dishes.   When the subject comes up, it is as if I have offended them, or they believe I am somehow passing judgment upon them through my actions.   So they question me as to why I chose to be one, and inevitably follow up with one or more challenges.   I don't mind explaining my beliefs concerning what I eat, but it really gets me when a meat eater then challenges me with such statements as, "Well, I bet you wear leather though."   I answer easily enough that I do not.  

However, what if I did?   I don't analyze which meats they eat and which they won't.   I don't try to trip them up concerning the relative similarity between a cow's flank and his brain, or ask them to defend why they eat pork but definitely not dog or horse flesh.   So, if I'm no fanatic trying to change the world one convert at a time, and my own vegetarianism results in challenges I don't relish, why do I do it?