Meat or me?

There was an interesting column on last week's Sunday Times.

In her article "Who's scared of dating journalists?", Sandra Leong wrote:

A while ago, while writing a feature about ethical eaters, I interviewed a woman who shared with me the pitfalls of standing up for her beliefs.

Despite being attractive and intelligent, she had apparently been told by several men that they "would never date a vegetarian".

When asked to choose between the two primal needs of meat and woman, the men decided that their stomachs came first.

- Sunday Times Oct 17, 2010. Lifestyle pg 14.

Now, I have not yet met anyone who says he is not willing to date me because I am vegetarian. Oh wait. Maybe I had. They just didn't tell me directly. Perhaps that's why they all disappear...

But I have met people who keep saying
1) he can't believe I am vegetarian (Get over it! Vegetable proteins CAN build muscles!)
2) he will never become vegetarian (but I didn't even suggest that he should be.)

I have not made anyone choose between meat or me (yet). Well, I never got that far anyway.

But I really don't require my partner to be vegetarian. It would be ideal if our partners share the same beliefs, but life's not ideal.

However, I do hope he is willing to settle for vegetarian food when we go out on dates. Sometimes, we can go to vegetarian friendly places and he can have his meat while I eat my carrots (sometimes, not all the times). He can eat meat for all he wants at other times.

I don't think that's too much to ask. But I know for some people, that's too much.

So meat or me,
what will it be?

Love, like you've never been hurt

Our body develops defense mechanism to protect us against hurt.

After frequent abrasions, our skin develops callous. Callous protects our skin against cuts and abrasions, but in the process, our skin also becomes less sensitive.

In similar ways, the heart may harden after each time it is hurt. While this protects it from being hurt in the future, the heart becomes callous and insensitive.

As I remember it from a TV serial, the ghost of a father who died from heart-attack told his heart-broken daughter: "When the heart completely hardens, that's the end of life."

True love may hurt. But it was true, then it will never become hatred. It will never become bitterness, nor dead cold indifference.

Therefore, "Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt."