By the time you’re my age you begin to really believe that you know yourself; you know the principles that you embrace; how you would decide on many issues and, well….. just who you are. Today is the second time in the past ten years that I felt like I ran into a wall. That is, I was so surprised in the realization of limitations in my ability to be flexible, which it was like running into a seemingly impenetrable wall.

Both of the events were loosely related to food, so I decided to share my self-awakening.

The first time this ‘running into a wall’ event happened, was about 9 years ago. One frigid winter morning I went to the kitchen to begin breakfast; I quickly discovered that no water flowed from the kitchen tap. After quickly checking other faucets in the house, I decided that the water was, indeed, still being delivered to our home; but was just somehow blocked to the kitchen. Having only lived in the mountain west for a few winters, it never dawned upon this native southern Californian that the kitchen pipe had frozen; which is exactly what had happened. A remodel the previous summer had positioned the pipe to the kitchen sink out over an unheated garage. The only water on the kitchen level of our home, other than the kitchen is the powder room; unfortunately, it has a very shallow basin – a basin too shallow to fill a decent-sized container. I ran up and down stairs for a couple of days, fetching water. It’s surprising how much water is needed, when you’re eating fresh fruits and vegetables.

So you may wonder how the ‘self-awakening’ interfaced with the frozen pipe. The fact is that I had always believed that I was the granddaughter of hardy Kansas and Indiana farmers; some of them had been in the U.S. since before the Revolution. In my mind they were a strong, resilient bunch that had endured many inconveniences and hardships. Also, in my mind was the firm belief that because I was their granddaughter, I was also a robust, hardy and flexible individual. After a couple of days of hauling water up stairs, I told my husband, “I was born into this century for a reason. I need running water in my kitchen. I can’t wait until warm weather defrosts the pipes; something must be done now.” And as you can guess, the contractor came; brought giant heaters; repaired the damage; and designed an electrical pipe-warmer so that it wouldn’t happen again.

Although it has never happened again, I’ve thought of that event many times. I reassessed my self-definition. The hardy granddaughter image had been damaged. I realized painfully that I was a city slicker, at least a suburb slicker, and wasn’t so hardy after all. What a disappointment!

The second time I encountered the wall was just this past week. On April 2, 2013, NPR published in their “food for thought” column a piece titled; From Pets To Plates: Why More People Are Eating Guinea Pigs. This new wall encounter started with a flashback. In 2011 Vic and I were touring Peru. We were touring a cathedral in Cusco where a huge painting of a feast included a guinea pig (which was painted the size of an oink, oink-style and size animal). The guide told us that guinea pig was still a delicacy in this area of the former Inca Empire. I immediately thought to myself: I’m a very adventurous eater – of course, I will try guinea pig before leaving Peru. I’ve eaten snails in France, beluga caviar in Russia, yak butter tea and many other strange foods in Tibet and across China. I knew I was an adventurous eater.

Actually what happened is this: We were touring a Peruvian marketplace, and came upon a restaurant with a small-attached building where you choose your prey while it is still alive, like picking your lobster from the restaurant tank. Instead of a tank it was a sizable guinea pig habitat, with little buildings, ramps, and running wheels – amazing! Unfortunately, the guinea pigs looked identical to the animals that my daughter had raised, decades earlier. (Which, it turns out, were originally imported from Peru). They were small, unlike the painting in the cathedral. They had pretty swirly fur of various colors. In the front of the restaurant was a sample of a roasted guinea pig on a plate; complete with head (with the ears and eyes) and four little hairless and well-baked legs that so recently had been running on the wheel. No way could I select a pet and order its execution, skinning, cleaning out, and roasting while I sat thoughtlessly chatting about trivia. What can I say? I needed to rewrite my self-definition of adventurous eater – this was a ‘no go.’

You frequent readers of this blog, know that I’m fairly committed to the environment. Now learning that Matt Miller, who writes for The Nature Conservancy, says that rodents and other small livestock represent a low-impact meat alternative to carbon-costly beef. The humanitarian organization Heifer International, says that guinea pigs are twice as efficient as cows at turning food, like hay and compost scraps, into meat. For each pound of meat, a cow needs 8 pounds of feed; a guinea pig only needs 4. Matt Miller said that, “There’s a clear cultural prejudice against eating guinea pigs, and rodents in general, in the United States. But finding ways to reduce our carbon footprint is a good idea, and so is eating small livestock, like guinea pigs.”

I thought this over and decided that knowing myself (emphasis intended); I would probably become a vegan before eating rodents. But having a fairly well developed imagination, I realized that if I were hungry enough, I would probably attempt to eat a humanely sacrificed guinea pig – and over time, I could just learn first to choke it down, then to accept it, then just possibly to learn to like it a little, as unthinkable as that learning outcome is at present. It’s a good thing I was never allowed as a girl to keep sheep, calves, or chickens as pets.

So this is what my little excursion into self-assessment won for me. I admit that sometimes I’m frustrated with adults who won’t try vegetables; who insist on drinking large quantities of sugar soda pop; eating white bread; and would rather die than cut down on eating red meat. After this self-assessment, the thought came to me, that many of those people might have never tried eating a healthy diet. Maybe it’s as difficult for them to try something new as it is for my psyche to consider eating a gerbil or guinea pig. Although I’ve gained empathy and compassion for the plight of all who need to change our eating habits; I hope none of us, mature adults, will let our non-adventurism, our cultural taboos, our self-image limitations or our long-term and locked-in food preference habits, keep us from moving toward a healthy body and a healthy planet. We need to start from where we are and move toward health – the payoff is worth it!