Robert eats hamburgers at my house on a pretty regular basis. He eats “combination” pizza if it’s pizza night at our house when he’s over. He also eats turkey when he comes over for Thanksgiving.
All that may sound like (1) a pretty boring start to a blog post and (2) fairly common meal selections.
Except my husband, daughter and I are vegetarian. My other two kids (Richard’s kids, to be technical, but we’ve been married so long there’s no “his” or “hers” any longer, just “ours”), are not vegetarian so we are used to having meat in the house.
On Easter, however, there was no meat in the house. The two meat-eating children hadn’t been over for a while and since we planned on eating out for dinner I didn’t think about going grocery shopping.
Robert loves his meat. He doesn’t care what kind, just as long as it’s meat.
When I visit him, I always ask what he had for dinner.
“Umm. . . bread. . . and. . . some fruit. . . and. . . Meat.”
What kind of meat?
“Ummm. . . it was just Meat.”
Obviously, not a discerning meat eater. As long as it is recognizable as meat, he’s happy (although I have slipped him a vegetarian sausage or two).
On Sunday, I asked Robert what kind of sandwich he’d like for lunch.
Do you want a Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich or a cheese sandwich? (I’m quite the chef, as you can tell).
Long pause.
“Do you have Meat?”
Nope. I can make you an egg salad sandwich, though.
Long pause and a long stare. Mental note: he doesn’t like egg salad.
“No Meat, you say?”
Peanut Butter & Jelly or cheese. Sorry.
“Hmm. What kind of jelly?”
Yay! We’re getting somewhere.
In spite of the disappointment of not having Meat, he seemed to enjoy his PB&J (it was strawberry jam, by the way) and apple slices.
It’s important to me to allow Robert to be who he is – a church-going, meat-loving, card shark – but sometimes, settling for a PB&J can’t hurt.
10 comments:
Note to self.
Bring your own brown bag to Roberts Sister's house. ;-)
Yummmmm... meat. You do have a lot of meat-loving people around you, don't you?
I have a friend who is a vegetarian and every time she came over to my house, I was compelled to order a meat pizza. :) (I think I sympathize with Robert.) Although, I was a vegetarian myself for a little while.... :)
That's funny, Brandy. I have a lot of people who sympathize with Robert! A little veggie sausage never hurt anyone . . . :-)
"I have slipped him a vegetarian sausage or two." - very funny! I've been known to slip a cup of coffee to a decaf drinker before. Well actually, it was a coworker who would only brew decaf but if the decaf pot was empty, she'd drink the "real" stuff. (She was the only decaf drinker in the dept.) So, sometimes, I'd pour a little into her pot. She was going to drink it anyways! Does that make me bad?
Your patience and love know no bounds! Accepting a meat-eater on a meat-eater's terms can be very hard for people who aren't into meat. Nothing wrong with meat-like foods, either (the vegetarian sausage). Maybe Robert would like other soy products shaped like meat foods!
Judy Stone-Goldman
The Reflective Writer
http://www.thereflectivewriter.com/blog/
"Word maven loves--and learns from--ordinary life."
My husband started the "Ayurveda" way of eating a couple years ago so it has been a challenge since then. i try not to get too upset when he does not want to eat the delicious mean i just spent 3 hours cooking!!! It can be difficult to put our own feelings aside and be understanding that not everyone likes what we like
Julie Labes: The Fun-Loving, Feisty, Fearless, Frisky, Fierce Over 50 Traveler
Julie, I'll have to look up "ayurveda" -- I can't even say it so don't know if I could eat that way. :-)
Judy, Lucky for me, Robert is a good eater. If I put soy-meat products(which sort of resemble "real" meat), he'll eat them. If I give him cheese pizza though . . . he looks at me and says, "I like combination pizza." A little harder to disguise. :-)
KeepUpWeb, Sneaky! Normally, I wouldn't be in favor of such hijinks but since the decaf coffee drinker drinks regular coffee, too, you're not terrible! (and a veggie sausage or two never hurt anyone). :-)
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