Day Nine: Why This Might Not Work For Me

I'm on the ninth day of my vegetarian experiment. I am loving it. I'm enjoying the food, I feel great, and I don't miss meat.

But there is one reason I have found that this might not work for me. Here it goes:

I am extremely relational. That is, I value relationships above everything else. To tell the truth, I am fairly picky about most things, when left to my own devices. But when it comes to relationships, all of that goes out the window. I have watched movies that I never would have watched on my own and tv shows that I really didn't like, eaten things I wouldn't have made for myself, and gone places that I wouldn't normally choose to go to, just to spend time with people. It's not that it feels like a sacrifice (although, after episode number gazillion of the Simpsons, it has certainly approached sacrifice level); it's just that compared to the value of spending time with people I love, I just don't care that I end up doing things I don't like.

One of my absolute favorite things to do anywhere is sit around a table with people I love, or people I am going to love, or anybody and share a meal, stories, and laughter. Sometimes this means I eat dinner at somebody else's house. Last night, I ate dinner at my pal, Jaimie's, house. I originally said that I would come after dinner, because I am experimenting with vegetarianism, and I don't want to "be a pain in the butt." (That is a quote.) She told me she knew that, but still wanted me to come to dinner, I said I would make an exception and eat the meat, she said no, and I went to dinner.

But while I was sitting there, eating my meat-free meal (and it was yummy), I just felt like I was missing out on the piece of the community experience. There is magic in sharing a meal around a table. If you think about it, you might know what I mean. And I just felt like, by opting out of part of the meal, I was also opting out on a little of the magic. The community experience.