Week Forty-Two: The Death of Mozart, Going Vegan, & On Reading

It seems that every time I sit down to work on my blog (and additionally, I'm sorry I haven't done so in a couple of weeks. Life happens), there is more to divulge, more to unpack, more to mull over as the days before the end of my project dwindle down unceremoniously, without any measure of ostentatious something.....

Let's get into it. 

We had to put my family cat down. 

Mozart, who was of course named by me, was a soft, sweet, handsome, lazy boy whose daily routines consisted of sleeping, snuggling, bathing in the sun when possible, and impossibly more sleeping. Two weeks ago, on that fateful Sunday, I was sitting at home, reading on the couch and waiting from a call from my landlord. Our dryer had gone out the week before and a new one was due to be delivered sometime that afternoon between noon and six PM. It's been my experience that life is often defined by moments, distinct snippets of time where the smallest details seem to exist in vibrant color and sound and smell, recalled intimately by those who experienced it. The call came and the world just shifted. I knew by the sound of my mother's voice and the desperate tone in which she begged me to meet her at the emergency vet that the time had come. Even if she perhaps didn't know that it would be Mozart's last day, I knew. Somehow, deep in my belly, an unsettling sadness laid heavy that just echoed "We will have to euthanize him today". 

And that's what we did. What we had to do. He was old and very sick and as the veterinarian so kindly said, it was the most compassionate thing for him. So, we held his little paws and kissed his furry little cheek, scratched under his chin in the way that he liked, and we let him go. 

Makes me wish we had the option for people, too. No one should have to suffer. 

Sweet Mozart

Moving on. 

I've decided to go vegan. Believe me when I say that the decision is as shocking to me as it perhaps is to you. A couple of weeks ago, I was having a conversation with my roommate about this very topic and he mentioned something about the difference between being a moral vegan versus an ethical vegan. It was after this very conversation that it occured to me that being vegan aligned very closely with my ethical values. Though I have no moral opposition to eating animals, saving the environment and reducing my environmental impact is an issue that's close to me. There's a wide swath of evidence to support how the animal industry contributes to the reduction of our resources not to mention the impact that farms have. 

So, I'm going vegan. Realistically, I don't think the transition will be terribly difficult. I tend to eat primarily vegetables anyway and learning to re-think my meals, though I'm sure challenging initially, should prove doable. 

And finally, because I am in no mood to write this week and my brain is kind of dumb today, I'll leave with this last bit of fun: I'm killing it on my books for this year. 

Okay, I recognize that I dropped the ball in actually keeping up with reading twelve new books this year, I've managed to pick up the pace in the last six weeks or so having read four new books in that time. Sometimes, like a lot of folks do, I go through phases where I will want to read constantly and then not at all. It's perhaps fair to say that for the majority of this year, I've not been in the mood to read but I'm oh so grateful that it's changed. I even managed to pick out my titles for the rest of the year!

Keep your eyes open for next week when I go over all the titles I've read so far. 

Love you, friends!