{"id":806,"date":"2008-09-19T22:27:04","date_gmt":"2008-09-19T20:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/?p=806"},"modified":"2009-12-28T22:27:57","modified_gmt":"2009-12-28T20:27:57","slug":"militant-vegetarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/2008\/09\/militant-vegetarian\/","title":{"rendered":"Militant Vegetarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When I was growing up in San Francisco Bay Area, there was nothing more politically correct than being a vegetarian. Meat was murder, and all good wannabe hippies (like me) would necessarily consider the eating of meat to be an unforgivable sin.<\/p>\n

While I never adopted vegetarianism myself \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I admit to my own human frailty: I like my burgers too much \u00e2\u20ac\u201c my predisposition to the lifestyle has remained intact. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only been furthered by the Jewish take on the matter: Rav Kook, the first chief Rabbi of Israel and a vegetarian himself, believed that the permission to eat meat<\/a> was only a temporary concession given because, in the time of Noah, people had sunk to such a low level of spirituality it was necessary that they be given an elevated image of themselves as compared to animals.<\/p>\n

So why has it been so hard now that my 15-year-old daughter Merav has decided to go the veggie route?<\/p>\n

I think the problem is that Merav isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just a vegetarian; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a militant vegetarian.<\/p>\n

At the dinner table, if some of the family is eating meat while she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chowing down on rice and veggies, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll crow \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ecch\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re eating that stuff.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d To which her seventeen-year-old brother will taunt her with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mmmm\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6meat\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6charred chicken flesh\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or similarly inflammatory barbs.<\/p>\n

If someone asks her to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153please pass the pot roast,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Merav will throw her hands up in the air and announce haughtily \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Disgusting. You expect me to touch that plate?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been hoping that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a phase; that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll eventually mellow out or return to her carnivorous ways. But so far, the militant stance has stood firm.<\/p>\n

Eating out has been equally challenging. Our neighborhood has become somewhat of a gourmet gulch\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6for meat eaters that is. The majority of the eateries that have opened in the last few years seem to be flesh-centric (heavy on the steak, not a lot of quiche). A recent trip down Emek Refaim resulted in four rejected restaurants before we found one suitable for the entire family.<\/p>\n

Fine, you say, she can order salmon while the rest of us are getting our meat fix.<\/p>\n

Except that, did I mention she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also an anti-fisheterian?<\/p>\n

Now, I have nothing against vegetarian meals. My wife Jody makes a killer lentil-pineapple concoction. And her Indian tofu with vegetables in coconut milk is to die for. Merav is using her new found dietary decision to learn more about how to balance meals and how to replace the protein she previously would have received from carnivorous pursuits.<\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to teach a little tolerance as well \u00e2\u20ac\u201c moderation over militarism. After all, if we can embrace her alternative lifestyle, hopefully she will see the value in diversity in other areas too. And as my teenage daughter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first major act of rebellion, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really not such a biggie.<\/p>\n

Except for one incident that has had us baffled.<\/p>\n

One time, when Jody and Merav were grocery shopping, Jody bought some frozen chicken and turkey necks for soup. There were also several wrapped up slices of luncheon meats \u00e2\u20ac\u201c salami, turkey, pastrami \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that somehow, mysteriously, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vanished.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Jody looked for them everywhere. Maybe they got put in the same pack as the frozen meats and were stuck to the side of the chopped hamburger? Or maybe they were accidentally thrown into the back of the pantry with the cereals and juices\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6well, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d smell that one sooner or later.<\/p>\n

But no, the meat slices were nowhere to be found. Finally, an idea dawned on Jody. She turned to Merav who was unpacking the cucumbers and tomatoes.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Did you by any chance take the sliced meats off of the checkout counter and put them aside?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jody asked.<\/p>\n

Merav was defiant. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, of course not!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she replied. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How could you say such a thing?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

But the teensiest of smiles, almost imperceptible if you weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t looking for it, indicated otherwise. Or at the very least, that she thought it was a good idea.<\/p>\n

For next time, that is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was growing up in San Francisco Bay Area, there was nothing more politically correct than being a vegetarian. Meat was murder, and all good wannabe hippies (like me) would necessarily consider the eating of meat to be an unforgivable sin. While I never adopted vegetarianism myself \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I admit to my own human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}