Ramifications

Elisa Camahort writes a column called Silicon Valley Veggie. The latest installment is Party Meatless, and it struck a chord given the recent bout of wedding planning around here:

But would they be able to accept if I threw some catered event and didn't provide any meat dishes? I actually don't know. I suppose it could be argued that my CSO [Carnivorous Significant Other] would be partially paying for any such event, and that his portion could be allocated to the meat dishes. Luckily the CSO is very supportive of my vegetarianism, and I don't think he would consider such a solution necessary.

Everyone else? I'm not so sure. I'll just hope they can deal, for one day, with an "alternative" meal plan.

I would just as soon not have any meat at our reception, but my strategy was to have the wedding at a time of day that would allow us to not serve dinner. I figured we could get away with vegetarian for buffet appetizers, but not for a sit-down dinner. C-Man felt very strongly that the carnivores among our guests could just deal with it, since they get their way so often in the world. And since I did feel like I was sacrificing some of what I wanted by having the wedding at another time of day, we finally decided to have a sit-down dinner.

I know who will complain. It will not be anyone my age. I know very few people in my generation who reject food just because it doesn't have any meat in it. But older generations...

But Elisa also mentioned something that had never occurred to me:

So, I can accept that I will likely never host a family holiday meal. We'll get to a ripe old age, and my family will be well-used to my vegetarianism, but it will never mean that they'll want to come to my house for Thanksgiving tofu pot pie or Christmas veggie casserole.

It's not like we currently have a house where we could entertain, but we hope to. Given that the purchasing of said house is still so far away, I hadn't even gotten to the imagining holidays yet. But my father would not exist in my house for even two days without eating meat. Neither would my brother-in-law. I don't bar meat from my current home, and I probably won't when I have a house, because my friends who sometimes bring their food here are very considerate and even use disposable plates and silverware if I ask them to.

So would my family members run down the street to McDonald's every few hours, or would they not even come? Would it be spoken, or would it always just happen to be more convenient for the event to be held at someone else's house?

It would get me off the hook with all the cooking and cleanup, though...