Friday, November 12, 2010

Urghh! Ground Beef!

I am now in Grinnell, Iowa. I am here to present a paper at a philosophy conference here at Grinnell College tomorrow morning. I arrived here about an hour ago, after driving 8 hours. It's way past my usual bedtime; it's now 11:52 p.m. Central.

Upon arriving here in Grinnell, I immediately went to the Taco Bell here and ordered a bean burrito to go (it's the only place open here at this hour). On a whim, I thought I'd also get some ice-cream and a can of beer from the gas station nearby. (I know, not very sattvic, but well...) So anyway, just a few minutes ago, I was happily settling down in my hotel room to enjoy my food. I bit into what was supposed to be a bean burrito, and realized that the texture was kind of... meaty. Hmm... very unusual beans, I thought, but I swallowed anyway. Then I looked at the burrito, and realized I was biting into a beef burrito! Then it dawned on me: The person taking the order at Taco Bell must have misheard "bean" for "beef"!

So, because of this accident, I ended up taking my first bite of meat in a year, and violating ahimsa! I dumped the rest of the burrito, and ended up having ice-cream and beer for dinner. What a culinary adventure in corn country.

5 comments:

  1. Oh no what a disappointment, you must have been hungry!!!! I don't thingk you violated ahimsha though... It was not your fault...

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  2. Wow, a long drive, a taco bell faux pas, and beer and ice cream for dinner! Sounds like an adventure! Anyway, it is very cool that you are presenting at a conference! I hope you are able to do some good networking there. What is the title of your presentation?

    I joined a faculty colloquium, which began yesterday. It is run by the philosophy/theology department so of course it made me think of my favorite philosopher, Nobel Ang! Yesterday we talked about the liberal arts tradition of universities in the U.S. It was a very curious discussion as both the colloquium facilitator and his wife were there and every time he would pose a question, make a statement, or respond to somebody, she would interrupt him. Leaking hostility much? It was ever-so-slightly on my nerves, needless to say.

    This is a bit of a tangent, but I feel bad for married couples or any kind of couples, for that matter, who feel they have to stay together for reasons other than the fact that they just like each other. I never would, since I think the only reason to be in a couple is if people genuinely like each other. I know it is part of "commitment" to stay together; it is an honorable thing to do; you have to stick together through the good and the bad, and all that crap. It is all about commitment.

    I don't have a problem with commitment (okay, maybe I do); my grandparents were married for almost 60 years and they went through a lot of trials and tribulations during their years together. But they genuinely liked each other. It didn't matter to them what life things were happening; for my grandparents, life was just an excuse for them to be together! Now that is a lovely thing!

    Well, there is my tangent for the day. Anyway, good luck at the conference; break a leg!

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  3. Dear Nobel
    While on holiday in Japan, it was impossible to avoid fish in some way in my food, unless I ate at a vegetarian restaurant. I would have reacted as you did. I think I only eat a little ham once a year and only at my aunt's on Christmas Eve. That's the only meat I eat ever. My cousins tell me they won't tell anyone I break my non-meat eating once a year there. haha.
    cheers,
    Arturo

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  4. ew! gross! I'm very amused by the gas station beer and ice cream dinner. Hope you find some more wholesome food soon!

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  5. Violating ahimsa? I know next to nothing about this, but my own approach to being vegan is that it's as much about the *intention* to do no harm.

    I would feel worse if I experienced temporary insanity and ordered meat, ate it, and it turned out to be beans than if I ordered beans and it turned out to be meat.

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