Life lessons with Franck

During my last week or so in Plogoff the initial awkwardness melted away and I became friends with Franck and Karine. My daily routine didn't change except for the work, it got a bit harder... but I suppose I now I have a pair of nicely toned arms to show for it. Another worker named Samuel came for my last week. I did not like him one bit. His very presence repulsed me which is something that I can't claim to have felt so strongly before meeting him. Although, I definitely tried to get over this; I assumed I was just overreacting and not trying hard enough to make friends with him. But I just could not push my stubbornness to the side. You know those people who just rub you the wrong way? Well he was like someone taking a porcupine and rubbing it all over my existence. Naturally, in the ironies that life creates, he felt the exact opposite of me and he expressed this in a letter he snuck into my bag before I left Plogoff. Barf.
ANYWAYS, one of the more interesting things that came from simply "becoming friends" with Franck was his life advice. Over lunch one day Franck began telling me about their sheep....and how they kill and eat them themselves.
Sorry, what?
A: I didn't know that people ate sheep and B: I didn't know that they would kill them themselves. Seeing the obvious horror on my face Franck began to explain the reasoning behind it and quite "franckly" (teehee) he made some good points. If you make the decision to eat meat/be a meat eater, he explained, then you should have the courage to kill it yourself. Because, after all, you are taking a life. One can't just shade their eyes from that gruesome fact and then just enjoy chicken wings. He made a very interesting connection between "life and the table" that I feel is ignored in our meat consumption in America. As we munch away in our kitchens on our hamburgers I feel there is a big gap in our thinking; we think "food" where once was "life." Franck and his family provide a beautiful view, a good lot of grass and the occasional bucket of old bread for their sheep before the sheep give the family food; this is an exchange of life. It is important to acknowledge this exchange because it is so often disregarded as we scarf down our roast beef. Now, I fully understand that it is silly to think that we can all raise our own meat. But I think its important to draw the line in the meat that we choose to eat. Its in no way courageous of people to consume meat from an animal that has been squished into a 3ft long cage its whole life and fed chemicals, in fact I'll take the moral stand and say that it is cowardly. If one is to consume the "life" that an animal provides in the form of food and nutrience then it is one's obligation to ensure that they are eating an animal who has had a life worth taking.

Plogoff was a really wonderful time. I learned a lot about life and the pursuit of happiness...Although my french has hardly improved.