BUY ONE GET ONE FREE FAJITA NIGHT

AND THE PAIN-BODY/EGO FEST

One of the last dates I went on was to Cody’s Roadhouse on a Wednesday, otherwise known as two for one fajita night. It goes without saying the place was jam packed with those who’d called ahead, and those who chose to show up, get a playing card, and hope for the best. We showed up oblivious to the two for one offer. We were told it would be a half hour to forty five minutes before we could be seated. I’ve no issue with waiting, even though Cody’s was not exactly my idea of a fun place to eat. I am vegan. I don’t eat meat, eggs, or dairy. I don’t go to circuses with animal acts and I don’t attend rodeos. I don’t buy new leather, but have old shoes and bags and feel it best to not add them to the landfill, so wear them until they wear out. But I won’t buy any new leather.

I adopted a vegan lifestyle for numerous reasons. Of utmost importance is the environment, and the knowledge that in order for Gaia to recover from the damage we’ve willfully inflicted upon her, I must make sacrifices. Along with that, I truly believe that we are connected to all sentient beings, and as such, are stewards of them, not murderers of them. I believe the only way to end the horrors of factory farming is to vote with my wallet. As such, I don’t contribute in any way to their profits. I am aware that by reducing my meat and dairy consumption, I am making a massive contribution to reducing (and hopefully in my lifetime eliminating) the death by starvation of 60 million of my fellow human beings.

Within the first few minutes, I heard numerous impatient complaints from the egos of those standing nearby. Within the next few minutes, my date joined in the complaining. Then he asked me to return to the host’s podium to verify (read interrupt and make her stress even more than she was already) when we’d be seated. Perhaps he thought she had some very special psychic ability to be able to guess when all the guests would finish consuming mass quantities of dead animals and their byproducts. Against my better judgment I complied with his wishes. Of course the answer was the same.

While waiting, I began to feel the collective pain body around me. It was a tangible presence that only amplified when we were seated. Apparently I was not alone in my sensing of the enormous amount of agony in the immediate area. We were seated next to a booth populated by four morbidly obese women, one of whom tried without success to calm a toddler whose pain body was causing him great discomfort. He wailed, and truly, I could feel how deeply unhappy he felt. Mostly because as I sat watching others around me get served platters of steaks, shrimp wrapped in bacon, salad soggy with mayonnaise based dressings and dripping with shredded cheese, steaming plates of chicken and beef fajitas, and butter laden rolls, I could feel little else other than the suffering of the animals at the moment of their death, and the collective poisoned pain bodies of those whose jobs required them to do the killing.

It was a cacophony emanating from every person in the restaurant, servers and guests alike. I was aware, and watched quietly, listening to snippets of conversations floating about my head, mostly complaints and judgments. The majority of the patrons were, to the naked eye, unhealthy. One man had an oxygen tank, and most were exogenously obese. The noise was deafening, the rank smell of death hung in the air, the pain body expanded like a massive black cloud that enveloped the entire room, like a roach fogger, poisoning everything it touched.
I won’t be returning to Cody’s and within a week I terminated the four year relationship with the man who is apparently oblivious to how much pain it causes me to be in such surroundings. I’d rather be alone than contribute, by default, to the suffering of the animals, those who have to kill them, and the planet.