All things great and small

Sometimes I look at pictures of animals and think: tasty. And other times, I think: dear God, how can I eat something sentient?

I believe all things have a soul. All things, including grass and trees, octopi and platypus. Platypuses. Platypi. I love English. Anyway, I believe that each thing has a part in this world, but can speak for itself in it's own language. They've done studies where plants actually make noise or signal other plants when they're in danger. And now the complexity of the sucker on the octopus is explained. Jesus, I like calamari and all, but if even the suckers are that smart, how smart is the octopus?

It's kind of like Paul the octopus who predicted the world cup soccer tournament winners. "Common octopuses like Paul are very intelligent. We equate their intelligence with that of a dog and they love problem solving and figuring things out."

Like a dog? How can you justify eating something so smart? And pigs are smart, too. Cows on the other hand are pretty dumb, so burgers are still in. Or, are they: Cows are also capable of feeling strong emotions such as pain, fear and even anxiety — they worry about the future. But if farmers provide the right conditions, they can also feel great happiness. Yeah, that whole article makes you want to run with PETA and set all the animals of the world free.

Perhaps it's time to go vegetarian? I usually eat vegetarian unless I go out to eat somewhere, and I already don't like chicken, so there's no biggie. It would be giving up shrimp and hamburgers that would suck. But I think I could do it. I think if I think about how smart the animals really are I won't be able to eat them. Well, hell, I'm unemployed, let's try to experiment.