Alphabet Juice has a new look! I am quite pleased with it and I hope you enjoy it as well.
The great essayist, polemicist, and all-around genius rapscallion Christopher Hitchens died yesterday of esophageal cancer, stage VI. I have always been a fan of Hitchens' writings, even when I did not agree with him, and I admired his brave and unscathing pieces about everything from the fatwa on Rushdie to the inner workings of the Beltway. A bright light has gone out, and we are all poorer for the loss.
But what does this have to do with this blog, and eating? In a way, everything. Hitchens, as he said himself, "burnt the candle at both ends, and it made a very lovely light." There is no doubt that his light was, indeed, lovely. But the lifestyle he lived made me reflect on the hard drinking, smoking, and partying Hitchens did that no doubt trimmed his candle's wick and shortened his life severely.
So often in life, we are touched by a loss, a death, the suffering of someone else brought close enough to us that we examine our own lives and vow to make changes that may help us avoid the same fate. Some of us are touched with chronic illnesses of our own, and again, we swear we will do things differently. But our memories as humans are short, and we quickly forget about the past, and even the future, instead living in the few days that make up our workweek, or our weekend, forgetting all about the long-term goals in favor of the now. It is so easy to say, "I'll change tomorrow," forgetting that all those tomorrows add up in the long run and make true change more difficult.
Today marks three weeks for me. Three weeks of total vegetarianism. They say it takes three weeks to make a habit, but I think it takes more, much more. Every day I recommit. Every day I remind myself of how far I have come, and how much further I have to go. Is it a challenge? Oh yes, definitely. Everywhere we look, our culture inundates us with messages about "deserving a break today" and "treating yourself" by making the very things I am trying to avoid seem mainstream and therefore easier, better. Are they easier? Definitely. But are they better? No, never. Every day, I remind myself that treats are for real events, like birthdays and holidays (not 'holiday months,' which is what October, November, and December have become.) Will I indulge on those special days? I will, yes...but I will choose carefully how I do that. I just can't live blind anymore, and I wouldn't want to. I guess that is what the real three week habit is...a change in thought, in consciousness about what I put into my body three times a day.
It takes a complete shift in thinking to enact real change in one's life, be it to give something up (like smoking or drinking), or begin something anew, like diet and exercise. Hitchens said at the end of his life that he couldn't have imagined his life without that second bottle at that party over that conversation. That was his habit, and his choice, and he never flinched from the fact that he paid for those choices.
This is my choice, and like some of Hitchens' ideas, it will not be popular with a lot of people, but like Hitchens, I don't particularly care. I do hope what I write affects people to at least think, and perhaps make small changes that will greatly benefit them, because in the end, as Hitchens said:
“What do you most value in your friends? Their continued existence.”
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