We listened with amusement and bemusement to a recent radio news report about a new campaign to help Americans to cut down on saturated fats by instigating “Meatless Mondays.” It’s a great idea for the mainstream, but for us it’s another reminder that we are not mainstream.
We forget that often; the radio speaks to us personally, does it not? It requires (or at least requests) a personal response. The urge to get on the bandwagon is strong even when climbing on that particular bandwagon makes little or no sense for the way we live.
Aly used to fear that the yearly “Turn Off Your Television Week” would deprive her of the two or three movies she saw each week. Every year we’d point out that since television wasn’t a daily habit for us, we had no real reason to try living without it for a week.
Everywhere that our fellow Americans are trying to cut down, we already seem to be there. I guess that’s because we started early, cutting back before we moved to the homestead, then going even further once we made the move. Are they promoting alternate commute transportation? Already doing that. Move to Slow Food? We’re there. Grow your own food? On it. Turn off your lights for an evening? We’d likely have to turn them on first! Even self imposed austerity events, like our “Pioneer Nights” make less sense in our current way of life.
As for Meatless Monday, our diet is largely vegetables, fruits, and fish, a far cry from the “meat and potatoes” diet so many Americans prefer. When it comes to red meat, we’ve become hunter/gatherers in one very true sense: we take it if and when we can get it, and eat it till it’s gone. Most of our red meat comes from the store, as hunting regulations, opportunities, and my limited skills restrict our wild game harvests. But when it does come our way, we don’t take time to see what day of the week it is, we eat!