What question do you hate to be asked? Why?
At the moment, the question would have to be, “What made you stop eating meat?” That’s because this coming Tuesday would mark my fourth week of going vegetarian.
To answer that question, I’d have to give a spoiler to the book that prompted me to stop eating meat. The book in question was “Under the Skin” (2000) by Dutch-born Michel Faber. It’s a book that defies categorization, one that skirts science-fiction, horror and thriller genres so deftly, sucking you in so effortlessly into its intended (or un-intended) message, that by the next day, I just about threw up at the sight of my breakfast of fried rice with bits of ham.
The next day, I officially quit eating meat, and while I’m still surrounded by meat in my house (bacon, sausages, steak, roast chicken) as the other two occupants are full-fledged meat eaters and today they’re all going to join the in-laws for Chinese dim sum (hubby graciously said no for me, thank goodness), all I have to remember is one word and I remain on the meatless wagon.
Mercy.
But for me to tell you why that word of all words, you’d have to read the book yourself.
Morrighan's Muse 
Oh, that’s evil…I want to know, but I really, really like being a carnivore..
I liked being a carnivore, too, until I read that book and found myself covering my eyes and reading between my fingers. Then the next day, I just about puked over my breakfast. So, I guess something happened in the cellular and subconscious level.
You just actually caught me counting the days since I’ve stopped eating meat (although I ate tuna salad sandwich twice in the beginning, thinking “oh, it’s not RED meat” before regaining my common sense), and I’m going on 26 days 🙂
Brava! I hope you can stick with it, in spite of being surrounded by carnivores. And if you fall off the wagon, just climb right back on 🙂
Thank you so much, Linnet! I need to not be so hard on myself, I think, with this vegetarian thing 🙂