I adore my R. I think I am the luckiest girl alive to have such an awesome, understanding, caring boyfriend. I really do! But then there are times when I start thinking about me being a veg head while he is not and I get frustrated.

This weekend when I met the couple that we talked to for awhile at the Party for the Pigs it was like talking to others with the same core values as myself. I found it so enlightening and I felt so much less alone knowing that other people out there really DO feel the same way as I do and really DO put in the effort to change their ways in order to make a difference. It's awesome. Especially when people like me are NOT the norm. People tell me all the time that they wish they could be a vegetarian or that they can't watch what happens to those poor animals, yet they scarf down their burger without thinking twice about where it came from. So I guess what I am trying to say is that it's truly refreshing to meet others who are willing and able to change their ways for the sake of those who are truly suffering because of humans. There is a definite connection there.

So back to R. Recently I asked him if he thought factory farming was wrong. He said yes, very. I then asked him what he was going to do about it, if anything. He said that in time there will be more choices for meats that are "organic" or not raised in factory farms. I was like ok, but that is not the present case (in terms of going out to eat, which he does every day at lunch). He said he was willing to buy "organic" meats, but he didn't see that choice currently. So I suggested we go to Whole Foods so that he could purchase some meat from there to make sandwiches for lunch. He agreed, and we did this weekend. YAY! I feel as though progress has been made which makes me very happy. Whole Foods does the ethical shopping for you, FYI. They rock!

I have read articles that state that when a person is a vegetarian/vegan in a relationship, the relationship has a higher failure rate. When I first read this I was like whatever, I have never even dated a fellow vegetarian and I would never attribute diet to relationship failure. But now that I have thought about it more I think it's a connection, a belief system, a willingness to act and not just think, a similarity that is truly important. It's frustrating that R has seen all the ugliness of factory farming, has met the survivors, knows the horrid conditions which he supports, yet doesn't act in any way towards a change. To me that makes little sense.

I mean I guess I expect that from the general public for many reasons... people are set in their ways or just don't know or care, which is ok I suppose because people are people and most don't realize their own power.

Alas, I know my R and his love for animals is real. He's agreed in the future that we should try to get a place with enough land so that we could save some animals ourselves. LOVE IT!

Soooo I just wanted to report on the progress we are making. It truly makes me feel like he is standing behind his word and beliefs now, they aren't just empty and meaningless. It's awesome!

As a caveat, I am not saying vegetarians are better than anyone else in this world, I am just saying it's cool when you find others who have a belief that is so powerful that it makes them want to and need to change their ways for the betterment of others. That is important to me, obviously because I find it important myself, but certainly doesn't make me or other veg heads better than anyone else. k? k. I am also not trying to control R. I don't like it when there is a mismatch between what people say and what people do when there is an obvious solution, ya know? No one is perfect and we are all hypocrites from time to time. To each their own is still my philosophy, I just feel as though I am helping him to actually NOT support that which he does not want to support. Make sense? Hope so. :0)

Happy Tuesday!