Living Among Meat Eaters: A Vegetarian's Survival Handbook

[Guest guest]

I thought this might interest some of you.

 

Living Among Meat Eaters: The Vegetarian's Survival Handbook by Carol

J.Adams

Will be available November 6, 2001 (according to Amazon.com)

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After weeks of this, the co-worker finally exploded: " Why don't you ever get

mad at me? I'm shoving meat in your face, and you never say a word! Why

don't you say something?''

 

Reid smiled serenely and said, " Because it's slowly driving you crazy.''

 

Turns out that wasn't just a case of isolated rudeness. Enough people react

that way to vegetarians that author Carol J. Adams has given them a name:

" Thrusters.''

 

full story

 

http://www.miami.com/herald/content/features/food/digdocs/008209.htm

 

Published Thursday, October 25, 2001

 

At last, a survival guide for vegetarians

 

BY ALINE MCKENZIE

The Dallas Morning News

 

When I was in college, I worked in a laboratory with a vegetarian graduate

student.

 

At lunch, as he was quietly enjoying his meal, a co-worker often would wave

a hamburger inches from his face, saying, ``Mmmmm, meat! Are you sure you

don't want some?''

 

Reid would just say, ``No, thank you,'' and go on eating.

 

After weeks of this, the co-worker finally exploded: ``Why don't you ever

get mad at me? I'm shoving meat in your face, and you never say a word! Why

don't you say something?''

 

Reid smiled serenely and said, ``Because it's slowly driving you crazy.''

 

Turns out that wasn't just a case of isolated rudeness. Enough people react

that way to vegetarians that author Carol J. Adams has given them a name:

" Thrusters.''

 

Then there are the " Caring Saboteurs,'' like one vegetarian's father, who

would hide meat in her food when she left the table. His motives were good

-- he wanted his daughter to be healthy -- but his actions were rude.

 

And let's not talk about the folks who love to argue that Hitler was a

vegetarian, or the Thanksgiving turkey battles: " But it's traditional!''

 

When people become vegetarians, they're sometimes surprised by the hostility

and demands to justify themselves that they encounter.

 

So Adams, who has written several books on vegetarianism, has created a

survival handbook, Living Among Meat Eaters.

 

" You have to have a thick skin,'' she writes. " To most people, we are still

freaks.''

 

The book celebrates self-sufficiency and the satisfaction of living by

example.

 

Vegetarians can do more good in the long run, and be more at peace, by:

 

Not expecting others to provide food for them.

 

Not being strident or self-righteous.

 

Deflecting anger with soft answers.

 

Eating delicious food in front of others to show that a life without meat

can be abundant and tasty.

 

The book will be published by Three Rivers Press in November -- just in time

for the turkey-heavy holiday season.

 

When she turned vegetarian in the mid-1970s, Adams says, she answered the

many questions she faced, until she realized that many people really didn't

want answers, they just wanted to argue.

 

Finally, she decided that her mere presence as a vegetarian made some people

uncomfortable because it forced them to confront their own denial about

meat-eating.

 

" They're upset because a part of them knows you're right,'' she says. " If

it's trivial, they wouldn't get this angry.''