Turkey Free

Were we not still knee deep in the suspended-animation state of a new baby, I would have posted this before Thanksgiving, but as we're fresh off of a Turkey Day dinner redux this past weekend, I thought I'd go ahead and share some thoughts on the holiday table.

Over the last few years, my husband and I have attended a few of the annual Turkey Free Thanksgiving dinners sponsored by our local chapter of EarthSave. For those of you who don't know, EarthSave International is an organization founded by John Robbins (author of "Diet For A New America" and "The Food Revolution") to promote a shift toward a more plant-based diet. Robbins, one-time scion of the Baskin Robbins ice cream empire, walked away from his dairy heritage in search of greater personal and environmental health. Now a vegan, he writes and lectures about the value, necessity, and ethics of a sustainable lifestyle. I've met John Robbins and heard him speak, and can attest to power of the man's quiet passion and his gift for inspiring others to walk the walk alongside him. The Turkey Free dinners are a great opportunity for communion and community with fellow travelers on the meatless (and nearly) express - imagine a table 30 feet long groaning with the ultimate vegan potluck... everything from more traditional Thanksgiving offerings like yams and cranberries to Thai noodles, barbecued seitan, and Creole gumbo. Add to this a featured speaker and a raft of great door prizes and it's an evening well spent, indeed. And the fact that they are so well attended, even in a relatively non-progressive locale, is incredibly heartening.

Nursing and diaper changing kept us away this year, and I really missed it. I'm not a vegan, myself - not even a vegetarian anymore - but I find that the event really resonates and serves to reinvigorate my committment to a more meatless future for the world. I was a vegetarian for over 12 years (and a vegan for part of that time). The reasons I no longer am are complex (and a subject, maybe, for another post) but I still eschew meat for the majority of my meals and try to make more sustainable choices when possible for the meat I do eat.

There's something about the holiday season that makes these sorts of choices seem more poignant - perhaps it's the spirit of goodwill that infuses everything this time of year, the sense we have that hope is afoot and that we can, in some small way, be part of that hopeful spirit. With my daughter, now, I'm thinking that it might be nice to have a turkey-free table in our own home at Thanksgiving as a way of marking a committment to a global reduction in meat consumption, both from an ecological standpoint and as a way to reduce the suffering of feedlot animals. I want to go a bit further than just having a free-range, organic turkey as we do now - perhaps even go vegan for the meal. I don't want meat to ever be a big part of my daughter's diet (or our household table), but I also feel the need to really call attention to it in this way. It's amazing how having my daughter clarifies, focuses and intensifies all these things that I think and feel and believe. I am amazed, and yes, thankful.