B.P. RUINED MY DAY

I was going about my life, minding my own business, when it happened. I have often said that I don't understand how people cannot be depressed unless they are shallow, simple minded or socio-pathetic. It was another picture from the oil-spill. A bird was covered with the goo.

I have been a vegetarian for 24 years. As with religion, I believe it's an issue of personal choice and I won't push it on others. However, others used to always start arguing with me on the topic. Observing my diet, they'd start talking about how people's teeth were designed to chew meat. I would get hassled at work over my refusal to wear the issue shoes and belt, as they were made of leather. For years, I bought my own and paid for them. I've never taken it upon myself to lecture anybody on their lack of birth control. I always wondered what gave them the right.

I was raised in a family of meat eaters. Trust me, it was the blandest fare going. Sorry, Mom. My father wanted his meat without spices and burnt to a cinder. My Dad is a hunter and a good shot at that. He uses every part of the animal. My family background is the fur industry. I saw what went on to make that mink and fox coat. I truly know of what I speak.

Yet, I've always felt a strong connection to animals. As a kid they'd follow me home. My mother was freaked out by one event that took place when I was in elementary school. A dog had taken up residence in our yard and I insisted that his name was "Brutus"; I just knew. Most kids would fall upon a name like Lucky or Buttons. About a week later, the rightful owner was found and the dog's name was---you guessed it----Brutus.

Our planet it a wondrous place and we are hell bent on destroying it. My random encounters with these news pictures add to my days of not wanting to dress or shower; of shutting off the phone and avoiding friends. The darkness, like the oil that is covering the gulf, seems overwhelming. Yet I know that my avoiding the paper won't mean that it isn't going on. I am not an ostrich. I just wonder how others cannot feel this too? The realization that there really isn't much to change things.

So, in the meantime, it'll be another set of days off that I sit around and listen to songs like "Moby" and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?. I guess that loving the little creatures around us is all that we can do (see my blog about being a feline felon), and not adding to the problem.