Grugger’s Way

I used to think vegetarians were rare (no pun), but it seems that vegetarianism has existed for centuries!

Leonardo da Vinci, Plato, Socrates, Plutarch, and Pythagoras were all vegetarians. (This is based on their writings.)

Albert Einstein, Voltaire, Van Gogh, Henry David Thoreau, Albert Schweitzer (at the end of his life), Charles Darwin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Leo Tolstoy.

In recent years, many celebrities have become known for their vegetarian ways. Often times, they use their celebrity status to promote causes, like animal rights and so on, like Pamela Sue Anderson.

Did you know that all four Beatles were vegetarian? Paul, John, George and Ringo. Incidentally, Linda McCartney, Heather Mills (McCartney), and Yoko Ono (Lennon) too.

There are a lot of musicians who list their preference as all-veggie, including Michael Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Ruben Studdard, Avril Lavigne, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, K D Lang, Leona Lewis, Tommy Lee, Pink, and Seal.

Actors are prominent in their veggie-ness too, including Robert Redford, Mary Tyler Moore, Hayden Panettiere, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kate Winslet, Sandra Oh, Diane Keaton, Vanessa Williams, Lisa Kudrow, Alyssa Milano, Anne Hathaway, Bernadette Peters, Brad Pitt, Brooke Shields, Candace Bergen, Christina Applegate, Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, Pierce Brosnan and Woody Harrelson.

Then there are those who don’t fit into any of the above categories but are prominent in the public eye, including Ariana Huffington, Ellen Degeneres, Vanna White, Deepak Chopra, the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi, and Paramahansa Yogananda.

The fact of the matter is there are hundreds of people whose names or work are familiar to you and me. They are famous for many reasons, and a vegetarian diet is just one aspect of their lives that gets attention.

I researched this in order to become more “assimilated” with the veggie diet, and feel like I am not so “out-of-the-mainstream” as I used to think. This will take some time, however, it is not automatic. I may falter, but I will not fail. My health is at stake.

I have been reading a LOT of material on the health benefits of meat, and, other than iron and protein, I just don’t see reasons to put my health at risk just for the flavor (which I have ALWAYS enjoyed).

While I like the taste of a rib eye steak, the smell of it cooking is almost enough to gag me. I know there is a mind-game going on here, and I don’t oppose killing animals for meat, I just don’t do it myself (any more) and I let my brain be taken over by emotion.

I’ve often said that my wife is turning me into a woman as I get older and older. I don’t talk about guns and trucks anymore, and don’t have very many “guy” friends to talk with about golf, football or fishing. Since I am retired now and the wife works full time, I do the grocery shopping, and quite a bit of the cooking. I do laundry (my OWN only), and vacuum some. I feed dogs and cats and take care of the yard. Perhaps becoming a vegetarian is the next step in my genetic transcendence.

One thing that undoubtedly influences me in my dietary choices is my spouse, of course. What we put on the table has a LOT to do with what she wants, and she is vegetarian. So, that kind of helps explain my situation.

If I end up being 90 years old, with no cancer or heart disease, I will have to give her a great deal of the credit. At that age, I will feel free to eat just about anything I want, that is, anything my old teeth could chew.

When the “Breaking News” icon comes on the television, or my e-mail notification says something like the same thing, my stomach tightens up and I prepare for the worst.

Pretty much I have been this way since the World Trade Center was destroyed on September 11, 2001. I always expect to see that someone has been seriously injured or killed or assassinated, or a bomb exploded or a kidnapping, or sniper or other horrific event.

What an awful way to live. I am fairly certain I am not alone.

I can sit here, day after day, and just wait for something to happen, or I can learn to ignore the news headlines and internet and television. That’s pretty much exactly what my wife does—and she is a lot happier than I am.

Frankly, I am tired of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is agonizing over things that haven’t happened.