Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Internal Hippy

DISCLAIMER I didn't intentionally want to make this a rant post..just to let you know ... love you!

I mention this in my "about" page. I am totally an internal hippy...and I would be an external one if I didn't care what people thought. I know I know, I shouldn't, but hey...I like smelling good (not that all hippies dont) and I want people to focus on other things rather than making fun of me. Actually most of my friends have called me hippy once or twice anyway, so I don't know what my problem is!

I dress pretty casual, usually jeans a t shirt and a sweater... but have ALWAYS wanted dreads. I was pretty close to getting them but then a friend told me I was too old for them (GASP!) and I decided against them. Plus it would also make me more visible...so I rethought it.

To be an internal hippy to me is that I can walk down the street and be lost in a crowd and not be classified. Might not matter to everyone, but I'm quite fine fading into the background and being a wallflower. My laugh might rip me out of the background from time to time and shed some light my way, but other than that I'm cool where I am! If you know me personally...(Shannon!)... you know what I'm talking about when I say that about my laugh....people in China can hear it sometimes, but I digress.

I have been a vegetarian most of my adult life and that seems to make people I know call me a hippy. When I told them I was a vegan...they weren't surprised, but I think I became more of a Birkenstock wearing, drum beating, leg hair growing, not washing my hair or showering hippy in their eyes .. even though I didn't change anything about my appearance or what I wore.

The only thing I did change was my health...oh and my skin..my energy and my weight! Wouldn't someone be happy for someone who turned their health around? I find it quite amusing that people mock and classify vegetarians and vegans as hippies or just plain weirdos for caring about their health and the health of the planet and all the animals on it.

I first became a vegetarian at age 11 when my Dad (he's a butcher and a hunter remember!) had a slaughter day to kill most of the animals on our farm. I couldn't find my pet pig Herman and was mortified to know that he would soon be on dinner plates amongst family and friends. "How could we kill all our pets?" I wondered. My Dad explained to me that the animals were in fact not our pets, but animals that were raised to be slaughtered and eventually eaten by us. WHAT? Seriouslyforreals? I thought meat came from Safeway! Not from my pet pig! (Ok naive kid...what can I say? I also thought milk came from there as well)Hey, I'm not the only one!


hee hee

Anyhoohaw, my point in all this is that I can't justify eating one animal over another. I wouldn't have roasted Munch (my cat) for dinner, so why should I have chicken? I can just hear someone saying...because roasted chicken is just so darn tasty! Well, sure...but do you know where that chicken came from? Did it have its wings clipped and beak chopped off? Just asking...know where your food comes from! My whole family was there for the slaughter day...and actually participated in it and are still meat eaters. They weren't traumatized like me, but in a way I can't blame them because they knew where the meat came from. I can't say that they know where all their other meat comes from, but it's their journey...and it's your too...so I just ask you to be more conscious in your decisions on what you eat. If you eat meat that's fine, but know where it came from and how it was treated before it was slaughtered.

Ok, I'm done and I'm getting off my soapbox...I hope not to torment you too much with things like this, but might slip back on the box from time to time :)

Oh! Here is another internal hippy! YAY!

New York business man Joel Seiden is interviewed by Alicia Silverstone about becoming vegan:



ps - I still drink alcohol - but in moderation. sssshhhh

pss - I like how he mentions that he had to get over trying to tell everyone else how to live and let it be...HA! My post is kinda about what others do, but yes, I still need to get over that too. Live and let live! (meaning animals too! sorry had to add that to be a brat!)

2 comments:

  1. Ummm...I still eat meat but I don't think you're a hippy...but then I've done my share of naturopath visiting and apparently that makes me a hippy...maybe we should be internal (AHEM...closet...really) hippies together.

    And I love that little clipping - where did you find it???

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  2. My Dad sent it to me...I think he was mocking me! Oh Dad...*sigh*

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