Chicken Dreams

I became a vegetarian one year ago. Before that, I was an avid carnivore, though I tried to work veggies into my diet when the thought occurred to me. But, hands down, I loved meat, especially burgers and steaks.

Maybe it was the chemotherapy that got to me, since one day I vomited up my meat meal and swore, "No more." I've been on chemo since October of 2012 to treat a terminal liver condition called Metastatic Colangio Carcinoma.

Since then, I've had dreams, though perhaps it would be more accurate to say "semi-conscious imaginings." Here's one:

I had seen a TV commercial showing a woman shopping, and she stopped at the butcher's counter. She saw a package labeled "chicken breasts," and said, "Let me have that.

In my imagining, I saw a grocery store full of six-foot tall chickens who were dressed as we humans would be dressed. They were doing their shopping. One female walked up to the butcher's counter. She saw a package that said "female human breasts," and said, "Let me have that." I saw this as a commercial with the camera working its way slowly up the package. I saw the label, "female human breasts." But, mercifully, the camera did not proceed any further, so I didn't get to see the awful contents of that package.

Here's another:

I was tied to a chair in a kitchen, and was forced to watch a chef take a live chicken, kill it, chop off its head, pluck out its feathers, and cut it up till he isolated the parts he wanted - the breasts. Then he prepared one of his signature dishes, cooking the breasts and mixing in the spices and other ingredients to enhance the chicken's flavor.

He knew I was a vegetarian, but that didn't daunt him. He waved this meal under my nose and asked, "Smells pretty good, right?" I said, "Knowing you killed an animal to make a meal out of its muscles is disgusting." Then I vomited on his plate. He tossed the compromised meal into the garbage, swore at me and left after cutting me loose.

I said a prayer: "I pray that this chicken can be brought back to life." And, sure enough, all the parts in the garbage reconstituted to make the original living and breathing chicken.  The bird started pecking away at a pile on the table which was the source of the breading with which his breast muscles had been coated before being baked.

I said, "I'm hungry." The chicken said, "Try this breading, it's actually pretty good." So I did - I joined the chicken in having a vegetarian feast. I'm sure the chicken appreciated that.

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Steven Searle, just another member of the

Virtual Samgha of the Lotus and

Former Candidate for US President (2008 & 2012)

Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com