Vegetarians In The House

Pattaya is having its' vegetarian festival over the next week and a half. Toom, my maid, is all excited about it. "Two weeks I no eat neua, and no drink wee-sa-kee!" Apparently the monks up at the temple are encouraging all comers to abstain as well.

I've always thought of vegetarianism as a moral thing more than a health thing. Therefore, what is 2 weeks? That's just 14 days before you get back to tearing the heads of chickens, and ripping pigs apart with your incisors.

Oh well. Maybe for every 100 Thai people that take a vacation from their blood-thirsty ways, 1 Thai person will stay permanently off meat. That's a good thing I suppose.

Not for me though... I'm a person who bases housing decisions on the proximity to McDonald's in the same way that nervous, married, first-time home buyers look at how close the home they are buying is to good schools. Quan Yin and her cow-like countenance may be the reasons why so many Thais shun beef, but her earthly counterparts are warmly welcomed between slices of bread in my house any day of the week.

But... since I could never tear the head off a live chicken; since I cringe when I see fishes suffocating in a bucket of water on the deck of my friend's boat... I fully respect vegetarians and their respect for life. However, I can still achieve separation between the sweet white breaded filet of cod on my plate and the creature that it was taken from. So, as long as I can keep up the illusion that meat does not equal animal, Colonel Sanders and I are best buddies.