So at work, I've been asked to proof a new-business pitch to a company that sells a certain kind of food. A food in the meat group.

As you may know from the shameless propaganda slathered all over my sidebar, I am a vegetarian. And I have pretty strong feelings about being a vegetarian. Believing also in a Buddhist philosophy, I try not to judge others for eating animals; I will never eat animals again, but it's a moral choice each person needs to make for him- or herself, and it's not for me to say another person is bad for choosing to decide that eating animals is not a morally reprehensible thing to do. If you eat animals, that's your moral choice, and while I disagree with you about that choice, I'm not going to hold myself in higher moral regard, or disassociate myself from you because of it. (Lol, I wouldn't have many friends if I did that...)

As far as go the companies that farm and kill animals and market them as commodities for consumption, I do disagree with that. It's wrong to breed animals, make them and their offspring live in absolutely inhumane conditions, and then to slaughter them and sell them to make a profit, never considering that those animals might, once or twice in their short lives, like to maybe breathe air not tainted by the odors of the feces of their bodies and those of their cellmates, or, say, might want to stand up and turn around once in a while. It completely devalues life. I take far, far less issue with the eating of animals that were raised humanely, in conditions that are the opposite of those in the factory farms where most animals are raised for the American meat industry. Quality of life is important.

So in a small way, my moral standards are up against my desire for a steady paycheck. By proofreading this stuff that promotes the eating of factory-farmed animals, I feel complicit. I'm pretty sure that if I talked to my boss and said I was more than happy to work on other projects but that I find working on this one to be against my beliefs and moral code, he'd be cool with it and have someone else do it. He's a really great guy and very understanding. Also, his wife is a vegetarian. He knows that the people who choose to not eat animals usually do so because of strong convictions.

What stinks, though, is that my not doing the project isn't making any difference. It just means one of the other proofers will do it, and it will still get done, and there will be banner ads and websites and such, grammatically correct ones, out there tempting people to go buy this "product" (i.e. animal), take it home, grill it up, and consume it. My objection makes no difference. It just gives my coworkers more to do, which makes me feel guilty.

But dammit, I don't have to be the one to do this job. I don't.

This probably sounds like a bigger deal than it is. It's just a small blip on the long, tedious road of my employment at an advertising agency. (Thank you, oh mighty job market, for crashing just as I graduated college with a liberal arts degree.) It tosses a little more fuel on the fire of my longing to get out of here and do something more meaningful with my life.

It's somethin' to think about, anyway.

C'mon, snow...