Happy birthday, resurrectedroadkill!

[AidaC]

I hope you have a wonderful day today! Any special celebration plans?

[resurrectedroadkill]

Thanks Aida! It's great to still be alive in spite of how life can be so dang challenging. I got to spend my birthday down in the Portland area, in Gresham, Oregon- at my sister-in-laws. It was fun having Thanksgiving with sweet potato casserole and other vegan dishes instead of anything with meat. (Fun is subjective- I'm still coping with becoming a vegan). Eva misses being close to family and I predict we might migrate down there in a couple of years. I want to stay up here because it's close to Darin's clan and I dread being with family that is all caught up in the fantasy-world being deeply imbedded in the IC can bring (they're in ministry) but maybe I'm being way too judgmental myself. In any case, if it comes to pass, it will be just another stepping stone in the process of elimination of what is available to us for emotional support, community, and connectedness.

[AidaC]

Brian, I'm glad you had a great day and enjoyed being with family. What made you decide to become a vegan? Being near family can be good as long as they don't try to manipulate you into their way of life. Hopefully if you do move, it'll would work out.

[resurrectedroadkill]

OK, update on all that:
Eva is the queen of deciding one thing and then changing her mind, but there's more factors than that. (I'm speaking about moving to Portland to be close to Eva's sister as opposed to staying where we are now.) So we're currently looking into buying into an "intentional community" on Whidbey Island because Eva has desired to be living in community with others since she went to the "Call School", and people there were very community-oriented. Whidbey Island is only a few minutes further for her commute and she would eventually find a spot in a van-pool that goes across the ferry and would only be $100 per month. I want to live close to anyplace where artists gather and motivate each other, so that's there too. I've entertained the idea of working for a cooperation and climbing the corporate ladder too, but it's not really suited to my personality, so living away from Seattle would work fine for me. (Her job is next to Boeing, only 6 minutes from where we are now but it would be about 45 minutes away if we moved to the community at Langley on Whidbey island. It's part of the tiny house movement, and our max sq ft. is 975 sq ft., and our kids would hopefully have other kids in the community, but so far only older people have signed up, and after us there's only 7 spots left, so we hope to use our influence to gather other young families.

About becoming vegan: We had a couple of salmon-cakes when we went to meet the people at the forming community at Langley because we prioritize socially connecting to others above our diatairy choices, so we're not completely strict vegans. Before we gave up meat I had a doctor tell me to give up all dairy and anything that contained casein because I had developed an allergic reaction and I had microscopic parasites that were enabled to exist in my intestine because of that in my diet, so I reluctantly quit all dairy-based foods. It was cool because I also lost 25+ lb's after only a few months. Eva has never really been a big meat-eater so she was inspired to give up meat a few weeks later, which made it really inconvenient for me to partake, so wanting to be closer to her, I decided to join her in quitting meat too. It has been a difficult time figuring out how to make dishes and not go to Wendy's or Arbys, or buy Hebrew National hot dogs, or bacon, or Spam, or hamburger, or all that stuff I love, but I'm doing it one day at a time, and I'm grateful for this experience. I'd like to say I've become vegan (mostly) to highlight my disgust with how big-business agriculture has treated animals and for cutting down the Amazon rain forest for grazing cows when it's completely unnecessary to get enough protein and nutrition from plant based ingredients without meat. There's a documentary called "Forks over Knives" that puts these points together perfectly. It makes connecting with people more challenging since we all have such an emotional and cultural attachment to food, so I get that it's not an attractive angle to present, but I have to make a stand for my own conscience sake. I'm fine with eating meat if I know for sure that the cow wasn't abused, but I'm too lazy to research all that, so I figure it's easier just to not eat it. And it's neat to see how our youngest eats her vegetables so readily since she hasn't been raised eating meat or dairy.

[AidaC]

Hi Brian. It sounds like everything is going well with you. Moving is a major thing and I hope the move works out well. I agree. It’s nice to be in a community based location. In this country, we’ve lost so much of our community connections and there’s a feeling of isolation which breeds dissatisfaction as well as depression. I think as free believers, a time of aloneness can be healthy but isolation is never good in my opinion especially if it continues for long periods of time.

About becoming vegan: We had a couple of salmon-cakes when we went to meet the people at the forming community at Langley because we prioritize socially connecting to others above our diatairy choices, so we're not completely strict vegans.

That’s good. We can’t always be dogmatic about some things. Depending on the circumstances, sometimes it’s good to lay aside our normal choices in order to encourage relationship.

Thanks for the update. It's always good to hear from you.