Today was a fantastic day. However, you wouldn't have known that by the way it started out.

While I was downstairs in the basement, busily moving a great set of pictures to the computer that I had just taken with the kids outside, my twin daughters were playing with some summer water toys that had been brought in. I was only half-listening to them and watching them out of the corner of one of my eyes, so I missed seeing that they had found the kitty litter scoop and were now working quite fast at emptying the entire contents of the litter box onto the floor. It had been a couple of days since I last scooped it out, and apparently they thought they would do me a favor by helping me clean it, so at least their hearts were in the right place.

My previous 247 warnings about the dangers of playing with kitty litter (yes, I have a special spreadsheet where I track these kinds of things) had either not been heard or understood by them. Unfortunately this time, Kendall managed to accidentally throw a clump of the nasty, gritty stuff directly into Syndey's eyes. I first became aware of the crisis when I heard Sydney's piercing scream, and saw her clutching at her eyes in agony.

Any other time, I probably would have gotten upset, since I've made it so plainly clear to them in the past that the kitty litter box is completely off-limits. Nobody with common sense wants to be anywhere near a Kitty litter box if it can be avoided. But I wasn't dealing with common sense here; I was dealing with 4 year old children who were simply playing and having a good time. So Instead of getting angry, all I could think of at this point was my little girl, and how terrified she was at the pain of having a large clump of sand scratching her eye. I quickly scooped her up, ran upstairs, and gently laid her head down on a towel on the kitchen floor. I remained calm and soothed her as much as I could because I knew that what I had to do next would hurt even more, and yet it had to be done. While my wife helped me hold her eyes open, I poured a glass of water to flush the sand out. I had to do it several times because there was a large amount of the stuff embedded deep both in the corners of her eyes and under the lids.

After it was all said and done, I continued to comfort her by rubbing her back. I knew that my precious little girl had just grown up just a little bit and would probably never play in the kitty litter again. The most important lessons we learn in life are sometimes, unfortunately, the ones that we have to learn on our own, through trial and error. But these are also the ones that stick most deeply inside us, and help us truly understand.

Hearing how happy she was now that the pain was gone, and being glad that I had chosen not to get angry with her, but to instead understand her pain and comfort her, made this a very good day.

One of the things that I have found in my life is that people will generally make the best choices with the information that they have on hand, and have been exposed to in their lives. However, there is so much information out there; it is very difficult for most people to expose themselves to anything but a small sampling of what is available. If someone does something that I don't agree with, or has a belief that is different than mine, I don't think they are an evil person. I realize they probably just haven't been exposed to the same information that I have, and haven’t had the opportunity to think and reflect on it. Most people have limited time to spend acquiring new information because they have lives to lead and other responsibilities that take priority. So if there is a topic that I am passionate about, and especially one for which there is a minority of current public support for, I have found that it is best to approach people in a non-confrontational way as possible. It's important for them to understand that I'm not criticizing them for holding those beliefs or acting in a particular way, I'm just criticizing the belief or behavior itself. I simply ask them for an opportunity to present the rationale I that have for changing those beliefs. If I'm right, and dealing with an open-minded individual, my point of view will sell itself if I'm allowed to present my case in a non-threatening way.

Vegetarianism has been a recent issue on my mind lately, but it is not the result of any particularly recent event. I have long believed that animals are creatures that are conscious and can experience pain even though they may not think or have the same kind of intelligence that humans do. We know that a dog, for example, can be happy when you return home to see it at the end of the day, or be sad and angry if you accidentally step on it, or go away for a long time. A dog is not substantially different than a pig, or a cow in terms of its consciousness level. Just as I would not roast my dog for a Sunday dinner, I now find it undesirable to want to eat another animal whose life would have to be taken, probably in a painful way, simply to feed myself when there are abundant alternatives.

I believe that it was much more difficult in previous decades to follow a vegetarian diet. That may still be the case in smaller, more rural areas of the United States, and certainly in other parts of the world. However, in large cities, and particularly the city I live in, it is now easy to find an abundant supply of vegetarian food in chain supermarkets. In some cases, the variety offered is the same or more than animal based equivalents. For example, the amount of shelf space at my local supermarket chain that is reserved for soy milk is about the same as what is offered for cow's milk. It comes in the same variety of flavors (plain, chocolate, vanilla), fat content (whole, light), and source (brand, generic) as cow's milk does.

Many people have the belief that a vegetarian diet will not fulfill your nutritional needs in the same way that an animal based diet will, especially in regards to protein. I was, in fact, concerned about this myself and did a bit of research before attempting to make the change. I found an article by going to www.nutrition.gov, which is a web site that the U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains. Under their “Vegetarian Nutrition Information” section, I found a “Eating Wisely, Raising a Vegetarian Child” resource that points to an article from the La Leche league. I remembered the La Leche league from when my wife was pregnant with our first child, and they provided us information regarding breastfeeding, so I consider them a trusted and reliable source. Their article provides a wealth of information and dispels many of the common myths that people have about vegetarianism.

At this point in my life, I’m striving to adhere to a vegetarian diet which allows milk and eggs. It's easy to find free-range eggs these days in supermarkets. However, the vast majority of cheeses contain rennet, which is an enzyme that is obtained by deep freezing the stomachs of young calves (not cows) and then grinding them up for inclusion in the cheese, which is why I'm choosing to give up rennet-based cheeses.

I may one day try to follow a true vegan diet. However, changing to a vegan diet does require some careful planning and I need time to be able to research and study it more, something which is in very short supply for me at the moment.

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