I EAT, THEREFORE I AM

By Dan Miller
April 22, 2008

My 9-year old daughter often contemplates philosophical questions, and she knows a good answer when she hears it.

On Sunday we took her to a local barbecue spot and, as we perused the menu, the following dialogue took place.

MCKENSIE: "Daddy, I love animals, and I just don't like it that we have to kill animals to get meat."

ME: "I know sweetie, but that's just the way it works."

MCKENSIE: "Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to get meat from something that had never been a living thing?"

ME: "Yes, but that's not the way it happens in nature."
"Everything that's alive feeds on something else that is, or was, alive."
"Even plants and fruit and vegetation were once living things."
"It's the old 'food chain thing'.... down through the ages, living things have sustained and nourished themselves on other living things."

MCKENSIE: (pause)... "OK then... I'll have the barbecue."

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