Tag: meat

The Sad Birthdays Start – 20th July 2023

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Not too young, not too old
Have a happy birthday today
Comfortable in this solid, good age
Time moves only one way
While all around are obsessed
With things that matter not
How can these golden years
Be the only gold we’ve got?

inspired by writing at Spinning Visions blog

Today I’m feeling:

Similar to yesterday. Heavy eyes but body set to go. Waiting for my brain to catch up. Coffee and kids will do the trick. 

The kids will be disappointed this morning as the playground is closed as another one of the sails covering the roof has ripped and fallen down in the storm yesterday afternoon. I wonder when they will decide to give up on this design and put in something more practical instead.

Today I’m grateful for:

Being able to watch Seven Kings Must Die via a dodgy Thai gambling website on our big TV tonight. It took me a while to get back into the story from the TV series (The Last Kingdom) but I enjoyed it a lot. 

The best thing about today was:

Getting home, hungry as hell and Amy said ‘ok, I’ll cook now’ and the smells from the kitchen that I haven’t smelled for a long time. It’s the best! My microwave TV dinners are no comparison.

What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?

It took me about half an hour to watch a five-minute video this afternoon because Amy kept talking to me, asking questions that required attention. When I felt confident that she’d finished I jokingly asked her if it was possible that I might be able to finish watching this five-minute video that I started watching thirty minutes ago? Thankfully she was in a good mood!

Something I learned today?

The phrase ‘taking the mick’ came from cockney rhyming slang. Mick is Mickey Bliss hence ‘taking the piss’. But now I’m wondering who was Mickey Bliss and where did ‘taking the piss’ even come from?

I was actually conscious of learning this while reading it hence writing it here. I love language play.

What is a cause or issue that is important to me?

Increasingly it is education as this is my field of employment. 

Over the long term, it is animal welfare and food use. Slowly the world is changing and the abuse of animals for food consumption will hopefully keep decreasing and instead of wasting crops to feed animals, we can just remove that part of the chain and use those crops to feed other humans. 

Increasing production and consumption will bring down prices of vegetarian products and drive up meat prices so they become less affordable and desirable. There are still lots of things holding back this change but it feels to me to be the most virtuous way.

Whilst this issue is important to me, I’m not evangelical about it. I do what I can by myself. Other people’s choices are out of my control.

I took this picture because this is how I found my students when I came to the classroom. I woke them up with my phone alarm and greeted them good morning. I’m curious what schools are like in other countries now. South America, the Middle East, and other parts of Asia. 

Yard – 12th October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

In between the cobblestones, dark and damp
Cities raise armies in dirty power games
Unseen except for curious men in the clouds
And relocated along with the rains

The world turns slow when not watched
No one pursues the moon across the sky
A violent vicious circle magnified
Inconsequential as it passes on by

The years teach much which the days never know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today I’m feeling:

Happy and tired.

Today I’m grateful for:

The lady at Sensi Weed who explained about all the different types of weed and associated goods her shop had for sale. I bought a tea bag, a chocolate, 4 gummies and a gram of some weed. I ate a gummy tonight and feel a little lightheaded. Maybe try the tea tomorrow.

The best thing about today was:

Getting a backlog of things out of the way whilst drinking a couple of coffees at 22 Grams. I felt very relaxed and had a lot of patience whilst waiting for my students to perform at Central.

Do you eat red meat?

I haven’t eaten red meat for the last 40 years.

I took this picture because this is my student’s (Aum) dance group performing at Central in a competition. They struggled with nine people onstage. It was much easier for the groups of five. Sunwa also performed singing and dancing solo.

Belief – 23rd July 1985

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

You’ve been one year living your beliefs
But now you think that you didn’t achieve
So now you are back to eating meat
You know that’s easy, what a relief
…..for you

So you stuff your face with broken flesh
Now you’re a good boy, do as mummy says
Ghosts of victims screaming, watching you eat
“What about the starving? Don’t they eat meat?”

“Well, it’s a boring diet, just potato and pizza”
While a grain of rice is all some get to eat
“Bollocks to belief, that won’t help me live
I can’t help that much, I’ve got nothing to give”

One by one, the pressure can increase
If we stick together and live our beliefs
“Well, of course, it’s horrible but I really need meat”
But how can you forget those unable to eat

Why should I care? Why should I cry?
I don’t want to see a starving child die
…..for you

Veggie – 21st September 1984

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

You call me veggie cos I don’t eat meat
So I can call you animal cos you think it’s a treat
Blood is pouring off your sterilised plate
But you can never sterilise my hate
You animal
Meat means murder
So what if you’ve heard it before
You never thought twice
Cos you don’t listen anymore

29th June 2023 – I was a staunch inarticulate vegetarian at this time. In small-town England alternative views were a battleground and expressing anything like this could see you vilified or beaten. I’m not militant about eating a vegetarian diet these days and slowly more people are conscious of the suffering their own lifestyles bring to other beings. Do what you can.