Remember how I was saying in an earlier post that I was the the orthopedic specialists’ office?
Well, it was because this happened
I was sledding with Erik, Kelsey, Jamie, Nathan and Brianna in Mammoth over Valentine’s Day weekend and I ended up sledding straight into a rather large, solid tree.
From the looks of the photo that Kelsey took, my leg twisted upon impact.
My x rays showed no signs of bone damage, so I had to get an MRI done. From the MRI they saw that I had partially torn my ACL and MCL and bruised my bone a little bit.
So now I’m on my second week of physical therapy and I’ve gotta say that its already a million times better. I was pretty ecstatic yesterday because I wore pants for the first time in a month. I can finally walk without a brace anymore and at a somewhat normal speed.
So I was at the orthopaedic specialist’s office on Friday (this is another story entirely, that I’ll probably tell you later!) and began reading an article in Audubon magazine (which I had never even heard of before) that made me re-evaluate my recent eating habits.
The Low Carbon Diet : Audubon Magazine
In the past few months I’ve been rationalizing my consumption of meat, mostly just chicken and seafood. I’ve been telling myself that free-range, organically raised chicken is okay. Beef is not. I can eat seafood if it’s on the Monterey Bay Safe Seafood list – still not sure where I stand on this issue actually. And other such excuses, but after reading the article, it confirmed my tinge of meat lovers guilt. I knew that making these little meat “allowances” meant I still wasn’t doing everything I could do to help the situation and the impact that raising meat is having on the climate crisis.
Honestly, I love meat, but I’ve chosen to refrain from eating it mainly due to the environmental cost of raising it. Originally I had decided to stop consuming meat after reading The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. Before that I hadn’t realized how much of our resources we were pumping into meat production. Furthermore, the indirect costs of factory farming (excessive amounts of animal waste, CO2 production – as well as other heat trapping gasses) were just as detrimental to the environment.
As a ethical issue, the consumption of meat actually does not bother me. Humans are omnivores and were made to be able to consume meat, it’s a natural way of life. On the other hand, I do have a problem with the concept of “meat farms”. I don’t approve of chickens, cows, pigs, etc being cooped up in their tiny cages with poor living conditions and being grown like crops. It’s just not fair, sure we eat them but that shouldn’t be the entire life they are allowed to live.
I don’t know how I developed this “condition” but when I walk by the butcher case sometimes I replace the hams and beef cuts with human parts and I have to get far, far away from that part of the supermarket. Maybe I’ve watched one too many horror movies, maybe my subconscious is trying to make me stay away from it. Anyway, this then makes me think back to the factory farms and if I start replacing those animals, living like slaves, with humans then I feel a little sick about that too.
It’s been hard for me to not have a bite of something with seafood or chicken when I have dinner with my family or go to Dim Sum with them on the weekends. My family almost always eats Chinese food, and most Chinese food is heavy on the meat and it’s also delicious. It’s food I grew up with so it’s hard to not want to eat at least some of it and participate in the family meal. It’s also difficult when my family doesn’t quite understand the reasons behind my decisions. It’s kind of like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the mother of the bride says she’ll make lamb when the bride tells her that the groom doesn’t eat meat. They ask me what happens when I go out to dinner with friends, “What do you do? Are you eating? Do you just sit there?” as if restaurants don’t have vegetarian options.
Anyway, I realized that I’ve just been putting off doing what I know I should do and really stop eating meat once and for all. I want to do my part and also set an example as a meat lover who has stopped eating meat. Sometimes we have to make those sacrifices and this is one I am willing to make.
The Low Carbon Diet is the article and it’s available online if you want to read it.
life is all kinds of things. it’s funny, not funny “ha ha” but the other way. it’s weird. it’s sucky. it’s beautiful. it’s a journey. it’s a race? is it about the destination? or getting lost and finding your way again? it’s not a cake walk. it’s a struggle. it’s a fight.
sometimes though, sometimes I tell myself to give up. to stop fighting back. just give up and see what happens. what will happen when I stop fighting it and I just love whatever comes instead of constantly railing against it. things that are making me unhappy, maybe I should just give up and know that this is one of those times when I don’t get to win.
maybe life is not an uphill battle. maybe life is a roller coaster and this is not one of the high points (maybe it doesn’t even end in a high point). maybe I just have to know that even though it’s lasting longer than I’d ever thought it would, maybe that’s just what has to happen. and maybe there’s no explanation for it. there’s no rationale, no reason, no rhyme. all my theories, explanations, and rationalizations about life are all trifling.
while it’s fighting me and throwing its punches, all I can do is take the hits with a bittersweet love for it in my soul.
I think I just stumbled on to the idea of Nihilism, but cozier.
It’s kind of funny, after the inauguration I expected thigs to be different. I kept thinking I would walk down the street and everyone would be smiling and waving at each other, birds chirping, the sun shinning, but everything was just the same as it was before except I was a little different.
I felt like I had just witnessed, been a part of, something really significant.
Reading that post and seeing all this art influenced by Barack Obama was a little surreal. Or at least I imagine it would be to him. The art is all pretty amazing and seeing all of it together is inspiring, no doubt:
There was art putting him next to Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, MLK and President Lincoln and but he hasn’t done anything exceptionally great yet besides get elected president. I’m sure that required a lot of work but still if he just stopped now, it wouldn’t be anything worth putting in the books.
Maybe I’m missing something? Maybe it’s because he represents something different from what we’ve had all these years. You know, change. So maybe this movement is just using him/this as a posterboy for changes that we the people have made and/or are going to make. Why is this different? It seems just the same to me. Is it because we are so, so sick of Bush that Barack Obama is mind blowingly great? Is it because America has just elected our first half African American president and this shows that we are changing? (even though it’s like we’re saying “hey look, race is not an issue… LOOK! I SAID LOOK AT IT! WE DON’T CARE ABOUT RACE!” /will ferrell voice)
I expect great things from President-elect Obama, I think he will need to achieve great things if he wants to get re-elected. I just want to wait and see if he’s really as great as everyone else thinks he is. I admit I didn’t vote for him but I do think he’s a good candidate. I’m glad he’s giving everyone so much hope for the future of the country and hope for a lot of changes for the better. Maybe he will deserve to have a national monument named after him when he’s done in office, but he hasn’t done anything just yet, except maybe make an amazing branding case study.
