Superior

Dana Carvey, as SNL's beloved Church Lady. (Right before her Superior Dance.)

To begin, I wrote a great blog post. Or at least the beginning of one. I say great because it was my love song to other bloggers, paying forward the "One Sweet Blog" award and bragging about the people I've so come to admire. Alas, technology had a hiccup and the whole darn thing evaporated. Not a word remained. Three hours went -poof- into thin air.   (sigh)

So while I began piecing together what I could remember from that post, an NPR article popped onto my Facebook feed, quickly grabbing my attention. Written by Barbara J. King, it was entitled, Do Vegetarians and Vegans Think They Are Better Than Everyone Else? It's a relatively short piece, and one of the few (on this topic) I've read in mainstream news that resonated with me.

So go ahead and give it a quick read-through.

***

All set?

I gave this article a lot of thought.

I don't feel superior to anyone, and have no plans of breaking out into a Superior Dance. The only exception to this is when Ryan and I take our yearly one-day summer pilgrimage to Water Country in New Hampshire to play on the water slides. We've often confessed that it's the one time of year that we feel like "the beautiful people." It's hard to put into words without sounding like a complete jerk, but if you go, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's an interesting place.

Returning to eating habits, though.  If I have friends, family, or strangers that eat meat or cheese or any other animal product in front of me, I never feel morally superior to them.

Number one, I ate all those products for forty-plus years, even when I suspected that things were not as neat and tidy as the animal ag industries led us to believe. There's no way I could ever feel superior and be able to look at myself in the mirror without thinking, "hypocrite." Impossible. And, as Colleen Patrick-Goudreau so aptly put it in the article, being vegan is not an end in itself. Rather, it's taking a walk down a (non-religious) path towards kind living, similar to the bully-prevention trainings we teachers frequent. There's no church, no newsletter, no book. You just do some research and figure out where you can cause the least amount of harm.

And meandering along that path, I've bumped against many inconsistencies in my life:

• I still feed my cats animal meat. (That's a whole other subject. But in my research so far I have not found convincing evidence that cats can survive without taurine, found in animal products. Please prove me wrong, somebody. Interestingly, dogs can do very well on a vegan diet, which really surprised me.) 

• While I no longer buy leather or wool, I still wear many of the products that contain those materials. We still have our down comforters. I'd prefer to use animal-friendly products, now that I know what happens to the animals whose bodies were taken for those mentioned items. But I just don't have the money to replace everything at once. 

• I killed wasps with the other day when they started building a couple of nests near our doorway and one stung Ryan on his way out the door to a gig.

And there are undoubtedly other inconsistencies that I haven't discovered yet. So, in short, I'm standing in a glass house with no stones in my hand. I cannot claim (nor would I want to even if it were possible) moral superiority.

Rather, I feel really sad for the animals when I see a spread of animal products. It has zero to do with me. It has zilch to do with the people eating those products. It has everything to do with what animals have to endure for us to enjoy that little morsel of what-have-you. And though I know incredible progress is taking place even as I write this, I just wish all the unnecessary cruelty would simply stop. I wish I could go back in time and show the old me, "Look, this is what eating this stuff is doing to the animals you love." Not because such time travel would make me an ethically more sound or superior person. But because I just don't want to put anyone through unnecessary pain, fear, or sorrow.

To illustrate, here is an often-told tale in our family of something that happened to my grandmother and her sister when they were still teenagers. Walking together one day, they came across a dog that had been hit by a car and left to suffer on the side of the road. One of them went to a neighbor's house to call the police. Then they stayed right by that dog's side, kneeling beside him protectively and patting his head, telling him help was on the way. When the police officer came, he asked them to step aside so he could get a better look. And then -- this is so awful -- he quickly hopped back onto his motorcycle and ran over the dog. The dog yelped loudly, so he ran over it repeatedly, killing it in a gruesome fashion. I remember my grandmother telling me this story, saying, "I just saw red. I always thought that was just an expression, but I literally saw red and I wanted to kill him." So she and her sister pulled the cop off his motorcycle, got him on the ground, and beat him up. Swear to god.

Did she protect the dog because she thought it made her morally superior? I doubt it. When you know someone is suffering that intensely, you want to stop it. It has absolutely nothing to do with you, does it? You just want it to stop. And you feel upset and angry over what they have had to endure, particularly if it is completely avoidable.

And so it is with seeing others consume animals. I don't feel better than them, because that would be ridiculous. I don't even see myself in the picture. I just wish desperately it would all stop. Because it can stop so easily. As Ellen Degeneres so beautifully put it, animal rights should really be "the right to be left alone."

So no Superior Dance today. :)  Let's just give the animals a break and leave them alone.

***

PS. My Walk for Farm Animals is coming up this Saturday in Boston! I'm 55% of the way towards my goal of raising $1,000 for Farm Sanctuary. If you'd like to sponsor my walk (even $5 would help!), please go to this link. Thank you very much!

Balloons, Fat Ladies, and Potatoes That Party!

Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays that remains unadulterated. It's about coming together, eating brightly-colored, comforting food, and taking some time out to reflect on what we are most thankful for. I've always loved it.

When I was little, it meant getting up early to watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on our livingroom TV. The big balloons were the best part, and I'd get giddy when Snoopy or Kermit rounded awkwardly about the city block corner, bobbing down at the elated crowd. The woodstove would be crackling and sending off comforting waves of heat and I'd dance around to the marching band music in my footie pajamas. All was right in the world.

My mom was a whiz at making the house cozy. She'd make Fat Lady's Dessert in the morning and I'd watch the parade while consuming a heaping bowl of it. (It was a mixture of a homemade strawberry whipped cream mixed with lots of fruit -- pineapples, mandarin oranges, bananas, frozen strawberries, apples -- and walnuts. It was a delightfully naughty way to begin a holiday! (It got its name, I'm told, when my mother ate an entire serving bowl of it when she was pregnant with me and uncomfortably overdue.) The whole house would smell of happiness as the day's meal cooked.

I think Thanksgiving was exciting too because it was like the Start-Your-Engines time for Christmas. From Thanksgiving until Christmas (and even later), there would always be a Christmas album playing, usually Nat King Kole, Bing Crosby, Gene Audry, Johnny Mathis, or Andy Williams. And the Muppets John Denver Christmas album of course. My grandparents, like clockwork, gave us grandchildren advent calendars on Thanksgiving, which officially began the exciting countdown. Gramma always found the coolest, sweetest calendars, always covered with silvery blue glitter. She had an eye for that kind of thing.

And Thanksgiving Night at my grandparents house? Talk about cozy. The house was filled to the brim with loud, laughing relatives who seemed to adore us kids. We were well-loved children! We'd usually play a few violent games of Spoons*, force mountains of dessert in our already-full bellies, and then Jane Riley, my grandmother's best friend since they were girls, would finally get pushed into the living room to play the piano. At this junction, she'd usually protest that she wasn't any good -- she was -- but someone would inevitably force her to sit down at the old upright piano. Then her amazingly nimble fingers would run across the keys and she'd lead everyone into enthusiastic Christmas caroling, which we'd belt out for two hours or more. (Made possible because my organized Gramma had typed up Christmas carol books with all the verses to all the songs. So a person had no excuse not to sing!)

People say that the whole Norman Rockwell family is a myth, but my friends, I was the lucky gal who landed in that picture, though there were probably more plaid shirts and inappropriate jokes in our version. Our family gatherings were such wonderful times, full of raucous laughter, playful teasing, and endless hugs.

In the past few years when I was considering vegetarianism, a small part of me was afraid that if I gave up meat (read, turkey) then I'd be turning my back on those irreplaceable memories. That I'd somehow be turning my nose up at my family, particularly those who were no longer with us. As I've mentioned before, though, seeing the reality of the animals' plight wiped those worries from my brain. And now that I've been vegan for 7 months? I can't believe I worried about breaking tradition. The tradition for me wasn't about the turkey. (You're probably thinking "Duh!" but bear with me -- I'm a bit slow.) It was about the memories and the wonderful smells and tastes of all those vegetables! The tart "ping!" of the homemade cranberry relish, the buttery squash (vegan butter tastes the same!), and, oh lordy, the party potatoes.

Party potatoes. We had those at every family get-together. A carryover from the 60's/70's, it is a mashed potato dream, with butter, sour cream, and cream cheese. You cringe, but you never tasted such wonder. Though it sounds heavy, it wasn't. It was the perfect blend of flavors. Party potatoes were what happiness would taste like if you could somehow serve it up. I decided to give it a whirl with vegan products.

Now, I should point out that I was not holding my breath. As I plopped all the ingredients together, I did not have a good feeling about how things would turn out, and had prepared myself for a disappointing culinary disaster. But I had to try! :)  Much to my absolute delight, though, this new version tasted (drumroll.............) exactly like my grandmother's! Wow! And no cows hurt! Double wow!

Here is our beloved recipe if you'd like to try it yourself and have a serving of heaven on your Thanksgiving plate! 

Party Potatoes
8-10 potatoes
1 cup vegan sour cream (Tofutti is awesome)
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion salt
vegan butter (Earth Balance is the best)
8 oz of vegan cream cheese (Tofutti or Follow Your Heart are both good)
paprika

Preheat oven to 350. Peel, boil, and drain potatoes. Beat sour cream and cream cheese. Add potatoes gradually. Add spices. Put in a 2 qt. ungreased casserole dish and dot with butter. Sprinkle paprika on top. Bake until brown on top. (About 30 minutes? I forgot to time it.) Makes enough for about 6 small servings.

We've also test-driven a couple of grain-based meats that we both like. Ryan's favorite of the two was the Gardein Stuffed Turk'y, which you can find the the freezer section. And my favorite was the Field Roast Hazelnut Cranberry Roast En Croute, also in the freezer section. Both are great! You can't go wrong.

I may also make the Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe from The Vegan Table, which has lots of yummy holiday recipes! I'm really lucky, though, in that my stepmother is going all-out to make sure there is plenty of animal-friendly fare at the table. Isn't that so sweet? I offered to take care of it, but she insisted. My heart is still all warm and glowing. :)

I had mentioned yesterday that there were ways you could help the turkeys who suffer unimaginably for our palates. First off, don't eat them. (Life goes on, I promise. In fact, it gets way better!) Second, consider following the lead of Ellen DeGeneres and Adopt/Sponsor a Turkey through Farm Sanctuary. (There is probably a similar program at an animal sanctuary near you!)

Here's a fun video of a woman who helps place rescued turkeys. (It gets intense at 1:32 - 2:26, so skip that part if it's too much for you. But don't miss the rest of it! The kids snuggling with these turkeys is too much and seeing them enjoy a nice blow-dry simply has to be seen to be believed.) 

So -- what are fun old or new traditions that you enjoy on Thanksgiving? What is your favorite dish?

*Sometime before Thanksgiving, I'll post the game Spoons. You absolutely must play this game with your own family!