Now that I've had my coffee, time to journal a bit.

Yesterday we had our Vegetarian Dining Club dinner (Mexican vegetarian, it's not just beans for dinner). It's not really a club--though more and more of us are becoming involved in a church project for ethical shopping/ethical eating. What's on the end of your fork? How did it live? How did it die? Is that something you want to nourish your body, nourish your spirit?

Anyway, there were 26 of us who signed up, plus a few more showed up than expected. Plenty of food--no worries there. Fraid we didn't talk much about ethical eating. Mostly when we get together we just talk and talk about...well, I guess what most people talk about when friends get together. Our families, what's happening in the country, the weather, how we used to celebrate (or not) Halloween as children, the addiction to sugar, the latest book everyone is reading. You know--stuff.

Sometimes I think we have these dinners really for the ingathering of community and friends, just because we like to get together and talk, and after church on Sunday during the coffee hour isn't enough. The stated theme of the potluck is just a starter to good food and good conversation. We often feel we don't see enough of each other, kindred spirits, when our workaday lives are spent with other people whose idea of a good time is to drink until insensible and wake up with a stranger, drive too fast, spend too much, gamble until broke, and so on.

It's a pure pleasure to spend time with kindred souls. We think of each other as extended family (and yes in this group we have our oddball relatives and cantankerous kin, too. One ditz brought Panda Express to a Mexican Vegetarian dinner).

I've been eating vegan rules for two days now. Who knows; they may make a convert of me yet.