OET Chapter II: Acquired Memories

Chapter II: Acquired Memories

So — you’ve read the first part of this little series: Why I became a vegetarian. It was the short version. The proverbial “quick and dirty.” A compact anecdote which has been told numerous times to many, many people throughout the past two decades. When I become a famous movie / television / viral video star, my IMdB “trivia” page will have this story on it.

But how accurate is it?

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not a pathological liar or anything. This is the story as I remember it. But it was nearly nineteen years ago when it happened. And I was a seventeen year-old spending lots of time crammed in a bus with a bunch of forty-five other teens my age (thirty-three of whom were girls. It was a wonderful trip!). It’s safe to say that I was a different person back then — or at least at a very different stage in my life. I saw things from a very different vantage point.

Here’s a bit of background to frame the story a bit. (Again — this is me looking back at my experiences from the eyes of thirty-five year old Shiny. Just something to keep in mind…)

* I grew up without having meat be a huge staple of my diet. This was because we simply didn’t eat as much meat or poultry at home as some other families did — our family kept kosher, and kosher meat is more expensive. Chicken was never my favorite, but we would have it more often than meat. I remember liking hot dogs, but not hamburgers as much. Oh — and I also liked the pre-made, frozen chicken pot-pies on occassion. It was also a way for my parents to sneak more vegetables into me.

* Keeping kosher also meant a separation between dairy products and meat/poultry. This affected me on one major level: ice cream. There would have to be a waiting period between dinner and dessert should the dinner be meat-related and the dessert dairy. If you’ve ever seen me, you’ll notice that (tragically) I haven’t been one to pass up on desserts. (This has changed slightly recently.)

* I had become vegetarian for a girl once before. Kind of. Her name was Eva, and I met her in seventh grade. She was this funky, new wave girl who was the new kid in class. But that only lasted for about three weeks. And when this latter bout of vegetarianism started during the summer before my senior year of high school, I had dismissed that as just something I did at age 12. You see? Different vantage points. Yet history repeated itself…

* My brother became a vegetarian when I was in ninth grade — but with a far cooler story, He had spent a few months at a kibbutz in Israel where his job was inoculating turkeys which would later be slaughtered for food. I guess it took a toll on him. But keep in mind that keeping kosher had been and still is a very important part of his life as well. He married a vegetarian, by the way. And I’m pretty sure that his three daughters are — albeit they gave them all the choice to eat meat.

* Speaking of vegetarian parents — My mom was soon after my brother did it. I’ve always admired my mom and my brother in their wacky endeavors because I’ve always thought they were smart. That could have been part of it — an excuse to imitate someone who is smart. I thought Robin was smart as well…

* Although I’m a vegetarian, I’m not a proselytizing vegetarian. Meat just isn’t my thing. And it’s absolutely fine if others eat meat. Case in point: my wife, socKs. Perhaps it’s because I like being different. And I’m an attention-craving drama queen.

* I suppose this is good a time as any to tell you all how much I despise PETA.

* I haven’t totrally abstained from meat / poultry / fish for the past nineteen years. Barring anything I’ve eaten which may have objectionable ingredients of which I’m unaware (although I do my best to check), I’ve eaten fish on occasion. Example: I was invited to a dinner in my honor and I neglected to tell the hosts explicitly that I didn’t eat fish. I wasn’t about to embarrass my gracious hosts.

* Oh — and there’s “the bet” socKs and I had a while back. She didn’t think I could eat an entire turkey sandwich one day. She was so confident that she agreed to be a vegetarian for an full month if I did. She chose February.

So — what do all of these supporting tidbits of information prove? I think you can gather a few things from them: (a) I can be a shallow, boorish individual who (b) is also a huge drama queen and (c) is arguably vegetarian for all the wrong reasons. But it also demonstrates that (d) an anecdote made up of memories can’t paint a full picture without the context surrounding it. I don’t think I can be entirely precise about what was going through my mind at the time — nor the way I portrayed my interactions with Robin at the time. It would be interesting to revisit the situation which, in a way, has shaped the way I live my life (or, the very least, the things I eat as I shape my life).

And I’m going to try to do exactly that.