I’m going visit my mother this weekend and it’s stirred up a lot of things for me. Most of all, my vegetarianism is for my health. My father died of a massive heart attack when I was 6, and my mother has since had TWO triple-bypasses. Yet she continues to eat poorly. Greasy fried food, donuts and tons of sweets, processed foods to the max.
I went vegetarian because of her health, but she can’t bother to change anything herself? I kind of want to shake her. Then give her a green juice IV.
But I can’t. I can tell her everything I know, with an annotated bibliography of sources, make charts and graphs, heck, if I knew it, I’d tell her when she’d die, (and more than likely WHY) but it wouldn’t change a thing. She’s so rooted in her bad health habits it’d be like speaking to a brick wall. Not to mention, she’s 65 and while change is possible at any age, she’s not open to it now that she’s ’settled.’
Does this mean I shouldn’t try? No, of course not. The situation is never hopeless. And, sad though it is to consider, perhaps my mother’s declining health has served and is serving its purpose. Perhaps it isn’t supposed to be a wake-up call to her.
Perhaps it was intended for me all along.