When I looked at this topic, I realized that many of the themes we've been writing about here on the OGG blog are quite similar. I blogged about "weaknesses" on 6/30/12, and here's what I talked about:
Men.
Food.
Smokables.
Regency romance.
8/25/15 saw me blogging about "naughtiness". Again, pretty much the same thing and I came up with....food. Specifically, pot brownies, red wine, nuts and Manchego cheese.
And Regency romance.
9/22/15: the topic was personal demons, and I named (again) men, red wine, and brownies.
So have my guilty pleasures changed in the last six months?
Not really, except that I have a lovely boyfriend who gives me a tremendous amount of pleasure without a shred of guilt.
My weight is what it should be, so if I want red wine, Manchego cheese and brownies, I can indulge--again, without guilt. At least not much.
Smokables? I have a prescription. Not breaking the law, so no guilt. (Not that I have felt guilty about that since I was seventeen).
Regency romance? The one Regency novel I wrote has consistently sold very well, so I want to write another. I am, therefore, reading in my genre. So no guilt.
I'd say right now I feel most guilty about being a lapsed vegetarian. I think the farm system is vicious and cruel, and I really shouldn't eat farmed meat. But I do, and I don't feel especially good about it.
Out of guilt, I buy most of the meat I eat from Whole Foods, where they swear that the animal flesh they sell has been sustainably raised and ethically killed.
But you know what? Dead's dead.
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| The meal my fabulous BF made for me on V-Day. It was delicious. And my BF assured me that it was a happy New Zealand lamb that was sustainably raised and painlessly killed. Still feeling guilty. |
I have the same mixed feelings about eating meat. Especially pork, which I love, and which is amazingly good here in Asia. Pigs are smarter than dogs. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteIf I lived alone, I very likely would stop eating at least red meat. However, I live with and cook for my DH, who has none of my scruples.
Weak, weak, weak.
One of my sons went vegetarian almost 2 years ago, after he read a couple of books. I read them also, and it turned my stomach to find out so much detail about the meat industry here. But as you say, Lisabet, my husband won't give up meat, ever. So he was very disturbed when I ate what my son was having instead of what he grilled up. We've compromised. I eat meat when I'm dining with him, so we don't have to make 2 meals. And he agrees to eat meatless a couple of times a week. Such is compromise, the basis of a long, happy marriage. But I do shop at a place that has Amish chickens, claiming they were humanely raised. But as you say, Suz, dead is dead. Husband points out that the Native American philosophy is to thank the critter before you eat it. Assuages some, but not all, of my guilt.
ReplyDeleteHusband says plants have feelings too. I think he's yanking me!
"Sprouts aren't dead 'til you chew them, you know." That's a line from a cartoon postcard created by a friend of mine, with a leather-clad biker at a lunch counter yanking the chain of a wispy hippie-type. I do actually feel a low-level type of guilt about eating meat, and even some plant life, although some plants intend (I'm over-anthropomorphizing, I know) their fruits to be eaten, so the seeds can be spread far and wide after going through the digestive systems of birds and small critters. This is less likely to work, I imagine, with human digestive systems, but I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteI love your consistency, Suz!
ReplyDeleteWe should probably have The Politics of Meat as an upcoming theme here on the Grip. I went through a vegetarian phase too, but I had a child who hated vegetables, and I eventually got tired of making two meals at a time.
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