Monday, February 14, 2011

God vs the Carnivore

Sitting in Atlanta Airport, I ran into a man, about my age, from Memphis. He opened up the conversation by commenting on how icecream tastes so much better in an overcrowded airport (to which, I agreed, Indeed!...). He, then, began talking about the Ministry and "God"..... Ugh. Organized religion makes me nervous.

For those of you who go to church...! - Please - Understand, I AM happy for you. Anything that effects your life positively is a great and wonderful thing. But personally, I think God lives in the woods, in nature, in wide open spaces and that is where I will always feel closer to universal energy. 

Usually, at an airport, when someone asks, "What do you do?" - I avoid the "Nude Modeling" conversation - I have been in hundreds of airports and explaining my job to strangers and it just does not bring me joy. SO! I usually steer the conversationaway from my job and we talk about traveling. I love talking about the three months that I spent volunteering in Africa or Guatemala. Or captivating them with that crazy mudslide story from Utah, or that time that Matthew and I lived off crackers in the Florida Keys.

For some reason, though, when the Religious guy asked me, "What do you Do?" ... I answered honestly... "I am nude model. I get naked and I take photos all over the United States." He cleared his throat, "Oh, well how does that make you feel?" And I said, "When I work with honest, kind, creative people, it makes me very happy." And he said, "...But how does it feel knowing that you Help to objectify women?"..... Defensively.... I wanted to lash back at him. Personally, I feel that I am trying to empower women. I feel like I am teaching women to take their bodies back. I am not letting men or society or anyone dictate what I can or cannot do with my own body. My body is my own. Does that mean that sometimes my photos get taken out of context and people objectify me? Absolutely 💯 - But is my goal as a model to objectify women? No. I feel like a lot of objectification happens when someone views a photo and chooses not to pay attention to the context or the person behind the image.

But, in the 20 seconds the conversation happened, I could not help but relate this conversation to the Vegetarian/ Carnivore dilemma I run into all the time.

I am a Vegetarian and when I tell a Carnivore that I am a Vegetarian, they almost always get defensive. It can be expected. They want to say ridiculous and hurtful things... like, "Cows are food, not friends." or "My food poops on your food!" Or "I love vegetables, as long as they come with a big juicy steak" - It drives me nuts! You want to eat meat!? Whatever. But being hurtful, for no reason, does not get us anywhere.

So I chose listen because arguments do not make anyone's soul feel good. So I sat there. Watching his eyes light up about Jesus. He downloaded sermons onto my Macbook. I don't know what it is but as soon as I see someone that is passionate about just anything, I am so easily drawn in by thrm. I could feel his love and his passion. It ended up being a very uplifting airport conversation that will sit with me for a long time.