Today’s words: Laugh, Maddening, Retiform (arranged like a
net), Frightened
Word count: 537
Completion time: 1 hour 21 minutes
Summary: Some people, like me, are really bad at getting
their point across even though they know exactly what they should say
--
“She asked me what the time was, right? And I’m like, ‘time
to make me a sandwich’! Get it?”
I laughed sarcastically.
“Haha, yeah, you got it!”
I never liked this guy, yet I was walking to work with him.
Why? He happened to bump into me at a pedestrian crossing and I tried to nudge
my protest out of its hiding place in my throat but it didn’t work. Fuck.
As we walked and he bragged about something or other, I
couldn’t take my eyes off of the retiform-like pattern on his tie. I stared
intently as we strode past various shops, the pattern constantly coming into
focus before blurring again with every step that he took. It made me think of
the cages that humans kept animals in just so that they could profit from them,
which brought me back to a conversation we had had months earlier:
“Why vegan, though?
Why not a vegetarian? It’d be easier, right? There’s no waaaaay I could give
meat up, proper carnivore, me! Like, where do you even get your protein from?
That shit must be unheal-THY.”
I think he had successfully asked me almost every typical question
in one go.
I’ve met a few meat-eaters who only really seem to talk
about their diets once they find out that I don’t eat or use animals. These same
people think themselves the experts on nutrition, too.
I uttered a little laugh before trying to figure out how to
say that vegetarianism still supports animal cruelty and that I can get protein
from various vegetables, nuts, and pulses just fine, but nothing came out aside
from that stupid fucking laugh.
I decided to try again, even though I was frightened by what
my mouth would come up with:
“Well you know, eating meat—No, um, using animals is bad.”
These maddening
words... What did you just say? Back up a second, you really just said that,
huh? This isn’t a Word document, you can’t just backspace that shit, it’s out
in the open now. Who are you, Mr Mackey? Meat
is bad, mmmkay? That’s exactly like him saying that veganism is stupid. Tell
him why it’s bad, tell him properly!
“Every day, animals are being killed...all day every day.”
...
Okay listen to me, half-pint,
repeat after me: ‘Indulging in animal produce is not only harmful and
exceedingly cruel to the animals who are forced to give themselves to us, but
it’s also needless – it’s possible to get an abundance of protein, iron, B12,
various vitamins etcetera from other sources! Who are we, as human beings, to
take things from animals without their consent?’
Yes, that sounded good, very good...okay, here we go:
“Eating animals is mean, and you can get iron from like,
spinach and stuff.”
“Haha, what?”
Fuck!
Fuck...
It was always like that; I’d have something really great to
say, but when I began to speak, the ideas had been filtered through a
dumbing-down device.
I suppose I just get overwhelmed with choosing a proper
retort because to me, it’s obvious why animals shouldn’t be treated like
that...but I guess other people don’t see it...and I can’t tell them...because
I get choked up.
I’m sorry, guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment