Wooooo! Vegetarians! I have become one too. Well, not really. We still eat fish, but I don't like to say I'm pescetarian, for two reasons: first, it sounds like I worship fish (Note: I do not worship fish). Second, the logic behind naming these terms is entirely uneven. Carnivore and omnivore are words that tell us the set of things one eats. Vegetarian sounds like it tells us what one eats, but really implies what one doesn't eat, but only by leaving meat out of the word, as if it were conspicuously absent -- clearly a word embraced by non-meat eaters for use in a meat-centric society. Pescetarian is even more misleading: is there anyone, besides Gollum, who only eats fish? (I now fully expect to learn the name of a tribe which eats only fish). If we can't, as a group of English speakers, get our egrets in an ellipse on this one, we'd better just go ahead and outsource the job. I think the Germans could put together a very consistent lexicon on the subject for us, and ahead of schedule too, but let's entertain all possibilities. But regarding veggie-centered dining, we undertook it first as an experiment. Part of that experiment, though I only told a select few about this facet, was to see whether my non-ethically motivated practice _became_ an ethically justified practice along the way. I suspected that it would, being one who suspects that all beliefs are self-confirming, especially when crystallized through some variety of practice). Sure enough, it did. Self-fulfilling prophecy? There is no double-blind version of this one, I'm afraid. My ethical shifts haven't been drastic, I guess. I never was at peace with the business of killing animals which underpins much of "our" diet, and am even less so now. My sense of the connection and ethical accountability between life of different species has grown much stronger. All the while, I realize that, taken to its logical extreme, a world without death is impossible -- barring unprecedented shifts in the lay of the metaphysical landscape. I think often of the paradox of the devout Jainist sweeping bugs out of his path. How many unsuspecting bugs have been needlessly maimed by zealous sweeping? And if we save all the bugs, we still have the microorganisms to weigh upon our consciousness. In fact, I think that without some of these, the very digestion of food is impossible. I guess I mainly want to cause as little suffering as possible, or to state it positively, to be a part of healthy ecosystems and symbiotic relationships which create as much harmony and wellness as possible. For whom, would be the question begged, and who better to bring it up but a host of the extinct, displaced by a long sequence of invasive species. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep eating lots of veggies and skipping the meat, and this, mainly for hedonistic reasons: it feels really good. Cheers on your shift thenewgreen! Keep me posted.