We went out to the Madrona Tree for dinner Saturday night, and soon after we ordered, the waiter returned with a question from the cook:

You realize that you've ordered bacon on your veggie burger?"

Another excerpt from "Animal Vegetable Miracle," Barbara Kingsolver's 2007 book. In this one, she talks about those who choose to be vegetarian.

It is probably impossible to live a black-and-white life, though certainly addicts like myself will try. The only route to comfortable success is to contemplate the grays and adjust when necessary.

That comes up for me today as I continue a discussion of how our family chooses its protein. To many, that might sound like liberal-sissy stuff, but we are convinced of the essential values of nutrition and responsible consumerism, and wish more people were.

We had the first conversation at our house last night contemplating a different family approach to eating protein. It arose from a couple of threads that have been entwining in my mind for a while: the processed nature of soy protein and the environmental values of grass-fed animals and getting it locally.

This is slightly off my usual beat, but I find the question interesting enough to take the time; I hope you do too.

Does God want us to be vegetarians?

I engaged in a discussion on the topic recently with Liz Oliver, my niece’s fiancee, and found it both interesting and, at least so far, without conclusion.

As you may know from reading in the past here, seeking and trying to follow God’s will is central to my ability not only to eat healthy but to live productively and serenely.