Most times I don't like the question because it is a throw away for the person asking. For example, when standing in a cafeteria line and a friend says something like "Oh yeah, you are vegetarian right? Why is that?" and by the way, you have 30 seconds to answer before we get to the cashier and I will have something else to talk about.
When I first started teaching at my current job, I taught Environmental Science for several years. During the development of this course I was reminded of the environmental impact of meat production and the environmental impact of malnourishment. Sometime in there, I decided that I would eat less as a means to decrease my personal ecological footprint. Forego that hamburger and you save more water than you could possible save with a week of shorter showers. So initially I have vegetarianism in the same category as upgrading to compact fluorescent bulbs. During that time, I took a trip to Guatemala to do a bit of an eco-tourist thing and to visit a few anabaptist churches out in the campo. Again, I was reminded of the difference between wealth and poverty, between choosing to be vegetarian and eating vegetarian because meat is expensive or not even available. This trip pushed me from just an "ecological footprint" action to a solidarity action. For a long time, every time I had to choose to eat vegetarian, I was reminded of the global poor, who do not have that choice. My choice became a mantra, a ritual that daily reminded me of my professed value system and worldview. So for awhile, my 30-second answer to the question was "I choose to be vegetarian so that I can be in solidarity with the global poor who do not have a choice". As you can guess, that is not a good response to a throw-away question. It begs for discussion. What do you mean? Why is this solidarity important? What belief system makes this make sense? Instead, I usually got a quick "Oh!" and a turn to the cashier. I still don't have a good 30-second response.
What I do find interesting about the ritual aspects of my vegetarian choices is how ritual evolves. I have questions about ritual in general (see this previous introduction), but I have found more recently that my food choices are so embedded into my being that I often forget the original intent. I can go days not eating meat, and not think once about the global poor or my value system. It never goes much beyond a few days since I eat out enough to always be making choices on menus, but it does make me wonder about other rituals. What rituals do I participate in that have been so imbedded that I don't even recognized them for what they are? And does the simple act of reflection on the history/origin of a ritual bring it back to life or allow the recapture of meaning, or is something else required? Do these sorts of "dead rituals" need to be blown up and replaced for the original meaning to be reintegrated into life? And is it just a bit ironic that the main way I am reminded about my concern for the global poor is by eating out at restaurants and reading menus? Just a bit pathetic...
So there you have it in a few more than 30 seconds...
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