Lamb – part one

Recently I was visiting an elderly friend of mine and her youngest and eldest daughters were visiting at the same time. The younger one ‘needed’ to joke with me about her choice of food at her sister’s birthday dinner in a restaurant. She let everyone know (particularly me), that she had had “the lamb”. This was her way of saying “up yours” to me, a reminder of how much her views differ from mine.
I’ve known her since she was a child and have followed her views for over 30 years. From the beginning she was sensitive to animals and familiar with vegetarianism. In later years she became interested in cuisine and now she’s making a stand for eating meat, hence her mischievous joke about “having the lamb”. Knowing me and knowing my stand, was she meaning to be unfriendly? She was obviously making a point about the eating of animals. Her having the lamb was a throw-away line but meant to attract attention. It rather changed the mood of our little tea party. Whatever could I say in reply that wouldn’t land us in hot water? I’m always up for discussing these things but I don’t quarrel to win my point. Some like a good slanging match. Maybe she wanted one. I don’t know her well enough, these days, to be sure of her affection. She’s intelligent and sensitive and doesn’t like letting things go.
As vegans, we’re not only up against lazy no-brainers, but also bright people who put up opposition. By deliberately provoking me, by rubbing it in about having “the lamb”, she knew it would get under my skin. Here I was having a cup of tea with my friend and suddenly ‘BANG’, out of nowhere things turn “heavy”. (My elderly friend, incidentally, was unaware of this conversation as she has a profound hearing disability). The three of us talked about the birthday dinner, the restaurant and the enjoyable evening had by all, then we get onto what each person ate … and then we came to “the lamb”.