A man a sheep and a bowl of fruit are sitting on a deserted island waiting for the boat that will arrive in the morning. The man and the sheep have an absolute riot, making each other laugh, telling stories, playing games and dancing too. As the night is set to draw in they make a fire. Come 7pm the man is hungry so he eats the sheep.
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My wife and I went to a restaurant next to our house that appeared to offer some kind of hot-pot all-you-can-eat affair with masses of vegetables, mushrooms, meats and so on that could be mixed together. I'm vegetarian and my wife will only eat fish, no other meats. We went to be seated and we spoke to the friendly waiter about how we would just be eating from the veg selection and we checked with him that there would be sufficient choice there to get a good meal - it looked promising.
The waiter asked us to select from the "soups", the large boiling pots you have on your table that you mix your choice of ingredients into. We looked at the various choices of spicy, veggie, and so on and opted for a split pot of a watery and light veggie one side and a more spicy other side. The waiter said "ok so you are not strict vegetarian then as all our soups are lamb based" and we both used small sky-hooks to fetch our eyebrows back down from the ceiling.
My wife was able to negotiate actual veg soups in the end so that we could stay and try the food but it did take some doing to have the staff grasp the concept of no meat - no meat at all. As we ate, and it was very nice, I looked to other tables to see how we were supposed to eat the meal, what you dip where and which implements to use and when. In looking around I saw all of the people dropping large amounts of raw meats into their lamb based soups and I wondered if there really was any need to involve other beings in this meal at all.
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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao
