I hope you all have a Happy Bad Karma Day (aka, Thanksgiving), if you celebrate it. Although many people don't like to hear or acknowledge it, I am not known for ignoring the elephant in the proverbial room. Fact: There is a lot of historical trauma, suffering, and oppression embedded in ("baked into") this American holiday. It's rooted in colonialism and racism.
That doesn't mean you can't have a happy Bad Karma Day. In fact, you should intentionally do so. It's really the only way to practice forgiveness, honor the oppressed, and heal the cultural wounds symbolized and recognized by/on this day. That being said, one way to honor the oppressed and heal the cultural wounds (and be happy) is to choose not to engage in the oppression and suffering of sentient beings...like turkeys (Oh, yeah...I am really in the sh!t now!). I encourage you to intentionally go vegan for the holiday, knowing full well that the culinary conventions of this day are potent and most people won't be able to rise above them. This is not weakness, don't get me wrong. It's just that tradition is a potent emotional driver for a lot of people, and we all know from Psychology 101 that the emotional brain overrides the rational brain just about every time the two come into conflict. Plus, most Americans have been acculturated since birth to accept the notion that slaughtering millions of birds on one specific Thursday of every year is totally fine and normal...maybe even patriotic(?). It's weird though, no?
If you choose to accept my challenge and go vegan today, be warned...this may free your mind and the side effects of that can be profound (it untethers you from blindly accepting cultural norms and narratives, which can be mentally and emotionally destabilizing, especially if your entire identity is defined by external social cues - in which case your ego completely evaporates and your consciousness "disappears"). But it also liberates your conscience. Once freed, that genie is difficult, if not impossible, to return to its bottle. You join the ranks of the unconventional and non-comforming. That can be scary.
Here are some tips, if you want to accept the karmic rewards of going vegan, if just for the day. You can still completely stuff yourself on plant based foods (which tend to be lower in calories, on average). You can cook a plant based roast, such as the Gardein vegan Turk'y Roast. Consider making a vegan side or main dish, like this African Sweet Potato Peanut Stew (which I will, in fact, be bringing to my family's Bad Karma Day celebrations today).
I'm not going to entertain counterfactuals like "I could never go vegan" or "I need meat in my diet." You do you. I'm just saying, good karma comes to those who detoxify and disentangle themselves from bad karmic forces, of which today's holiday is definitely one. I said what I said and I'll own that.
In other news, today is in many ways no different than any other day as far as self care and positivity. In about five minutes, I'll get my Peloton workout out of the way, then move on to prepping some Bad Karma Day food, comprising: aforementioned sweet potato stew, apple pies, vegan roasts, and mashed potatoes (using vegan butter and oat milk). I already knocked off my DuoLingo Spanish lesson and moved the three bags of water softener salt to the basement (putting two of them into the softener salt basin). These may seem like mundane and commonplace things not worthy of mention. Counterpoint: In Buddhism, enlightenment comes through intention and mindfulness in simple daily activities. Choose to be hyperaware today.
Blessings from the (secular) Church of BWJ!
Fin.
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