Strange for someone who has been a vegetarian for over 20 years, but……
…..I went to school under socialism, and from the very first year of school they were shaping us ideologically. They held up as an example some Soviet little comrade or other, whose first word had been “socialism”, and another little child, a Bulgarian, whose first word had been “the Party”. Being 7 years old, I wanted to be worthy of being one of those little geniuses. As top of the class, I reckoned it was far from impossible that I too had uttered some ideological pearl as my first word.
I was really hoping my first little word had been “BCP”. I even nursed certain hopes for “CPSU”. I could hardly wait to get home and ask Mum.
…Her answer shook me to the core: it really didn’t suit the top pupil of class 1A that her first word had been a shyly whispered: “SALAMI”
Now, after 20 years of vegetarianism, which landed me with anaemia, I’ve started eating meat again. And I think: vegetarianism is an ideology and a practice I support with all my heart. It just isn’t for everyone. Not for a little child whose very first word was “salami”.
P.S. And it turned out that “Salami” hadn’t been a shyly whispered little word, as I had imagined. It had been yelled by a chubby baby strapped into her pushchair, who couldn’t reach the table where the grown-ups were tucking happily into the delicacy in question.
Try explaining that to your psychoanalyst when you’re all grown up….
