(image from here)
This week's show will be about honey (& also bee about honey) & I know what you're thinking - hey! didn't you do a show about bees two weeks ago? That's true, & indeed there will be honeybee songs in this week's show because I deliberately left them out of last week's show. Anyway, if you don't already know about why I'm continuing with the bee theme, check back tomorrow - I'll mention it again.
What I wanted to talk about today I can preface with two jokes. One goes like this:
Q: If you're at a party, how will you know when the vegan, the Mormon, & the crossfitter show up?
A: They'll tell you.
There are other variations of the joke, depending on which group of people you dislike or feel like you think is self-important enough to warrant their inclusion. But the point is, these awful people always want to talk about how great they are because of their beliefs/health/whatever.
Actually, I made up a joke that depends on knowledge of this joke to work. It goes like this:
A vegan, a crossfitter, & a Mormon are at a party. An astronaut enters & they all look at each other & say, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck."
In this version of the joke, the astronaut is somehow just as awful as the others. But it could be any self-important professional or hobby or habit you know.
Before this joke began circulating, I myself had already stopped telling people I was vegan unless it somehow came up. I have no interest in proselytizing & I don't enjoy it when people get defensive about their own eating choices. I remember having a conversation with a fellow vegan & someone overheard & said, "I just can't do it." I said, "No one's asking you to be a vegan. We're just talking." He kept shaking his head & said, "I can't do it. I just couldn't do it."
Some vegans find my decidedly unstrident attitude deplorable, as they believe it's important to be vegan to save life on this planet - & the planet itself - & they feel the need to "spread the word." I am certain I'd enjoy the planet more if everyone on it were vegan but I don't believe you can really change hearts & minds & customs & habits in this way. Anyway, it would probably also upset these people that I myself don't have strong feelings about eating honey.
There are many reasons for it, & it truly doesn't affect me much as I very rarely eat honey. When I do, I don't eat commercially produced honey, most of which doesn't have actual honey in it. If we have honey in the house, it's probably from a local beekeeper, bought at a farmer's market. Do we have any honey in the house? I'll check. [A little time passes.] We actually don't.
More than that, though, I just can't be upset about honey because it comes from bugs. Don't get me wrong: I understand the value that bees have on this planet. But I can't get upset about bugs in the same way I might about pigs or cows. This may be a character flaw. I became a vegan because I felt it was unethical to kill animals to eat them. But I wasn't thinking about bugs; I will kill a bug if it's in my vicinity. A Jain I ain't.
One nightmare scenario health-wise would be discovering that I needed some nutrient that was only available from animal products. I might suffer if it were to come from mammals or fish. But if I could get it from, say, crickets? Problem solved, in my mind. (They'd have to disguise the cricket somehow, though. I find all bugs a bit terrifying & I couldn't just pop one in my mouth!)
It's not that I'm worried a radio show about honey will upset vegan listeners. I don't even know if I have listeners at all! Plus, I've done shows about other non-vegan things - like butchers - I don't think I'm necessarily celebrating or endorsing something just because I'm doing a show about it. I just thought I should mention that although I'm a vegan, I don't ultimately think there's anything ethically wrong with eating honey. It's just my opinion. You get to make that decision for yourself.
Silk doesn't bother me much either. They're worms!
Silk doesn't bother me much either. They're worms!
