Can you ease stress if you “walk the talk”?

Back when I started my life in the working world as a twenty-something, I became good friends with a fellow named Glen. Glen, who I have lost touch with, was one of the most intelligent, conscientious people I ever knew, and I learned a lot from him. He was very religious and I remember he was always saying things like “if you are going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk”. Or something. Maybe it was “you need to walk the talk”. Whatever. Basically, his point was that you should do as you say. Practice what you preach.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I “talk” a lot. How much of that do I actually “walk”? Ashamedly, not that much, which is pretty awful. I know I am not alone either. I’m wondering how these conflicts affect a person’s well being. If, in essence, you are living a lot of little lies, can you be a very healthy person? It must be terribly stressful to always be preaching one thing and practicing another.

OK, so what brought this to a little boil recently?

When I was at the San Diego zoo I was reading about the gorillas. Of course I know the population of gorillas is shrinking. I figured it was due to their habitat being taken away, and/or their demise because some idiots want a gorilla head as a decoration or something. But the sign I read said that many were being lost in the bushmeat trade. That is, people are killing them and eating them.  This really horrified me – even more than the other reasons. “How cam someone EAT a great ape?” I thought. Crickey – that is like eating  a person!! How can you kill and eat something intelligent like that?

Then I looked at my own hypocrisy. I eat intelligent animals every day. They suffer because of people like me. And the more intelligent ones probably suffer the most. Once again, I am not walking the talk.

Yes, I would like to go vegetarian and no, I have not started that path. Though Lord knows I should. But maybe I can do a little something to at least move in the right direction. Years ago I made the decision to never eat veal again, because of the way the calves are treated prior to slaughter. I love veal but have not had it in over 25 years. So, I have decided to add another animal to my list. Of the animals we eat, I am guessing fish are the least intelligent. Pigs are probably the most intelligent (I encourage anyone to look into it. There are many resources on the web). So, I am quitting pork.

It is not so easy – especially at breakfast on Sundays. And I truly love pork. But this is a little challenge that has not been all that difficult to meet. I’ll stick with it.

Any less stress yet as I walk one step of my talk? Nah, I have miles of steps to go. But I am one step closer.