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Food, so many decisions

© Bob Ewing

Snow, I woke this morning , about 7a.m, to the weather announcer saying that we could expect approximately 25 centimeters of snow today. Then, a little later, the morning paper made the same prediction and added we could expect some freezing rain mixed in. By ten a.m, it was obvious that they were right. Our first serious snow had begun to fall and what's more important wasn't melting. We closed the office around noon and headed home. A good decision as the snow, good old packing snow, excellent for snowpeople and snowballs, is still falling and getting heavier.

Decision can be tough to make, there are some many factors to consider. Take food for example, you may decide to take a moral stance and become a vegan and eliminate all animal products form your diet or take the less demanding but no less moral route and become a vegetarian. You could decide that you want to follow your ethnic heritage and include foods in your diet which reflect that decision. Or you may want to add the tastes and texture of another culture to your daily dining.

You may choose to keep meat in your menu and experience the wide array fo dishes that await you. You can grow some of your own food or purchase it all, in a variety of ways. You may want to develop you abilities to look after yourself and leanr how to find your own food. Or you may include food in your religious or spiritual celebrations. Of course , your eathing behaviour may well combine several of the above in a style that could be uniquely your own.

Food, what we eat and how we obtain it, is a major issue when it comes to forming an intentional or alternative community. You need to know what is important to you and what you can walk away from. If you are a vegetarian, can you share meals with people who enjoy meat? If you believe that all food must be grown organically, can you live with someone who buys from a chain supermarket and doesn't care how the food was grown?

Try this, for the next week record all that you eat. Divide a sheet of paper into two columns, one for what you ate and another, for why you ate it. Under what, include where it came from supermarket, fast food, grew it yourself. At the end of the week, review your list. Could you have made other choices, if so what and why. If you are considering living in an intentional community the better you understand yourself, the easier it will be to know others.