‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ in My Mother’s Kitchen
When I first went vegan, my mom didn’t make the connection between her religious beliefs and animals — but since, her kitchen has changed
You can learn a lot about a person by the way they manage their kitchen. By the way they keep the dining table, by why they cook, and who they cook for. For many years, my parents cooked because they loved it. My father would glow with new energy when he was able to push away from his desk and don his favorite apron. My mother’s eyes would light up any time a child got sick and before long the kitchen would buzz and hum with the sound and smells that would make any flu tremble.
But there was always something wrong, something that didn’t quite fit with the way they raised their children and the way they managed their kitchen. You see, my siblings and I were raised amidst religious confusion. We attended both Jewish and Christian houses of worship and study schools for the first decade or so of my life. Like most spiritual families, our faith continued outside the church or synagogue grounds. In Sunday school, Hebrew school, and our home, the Ten Commandments were taught ad nauseam. They are such a fundamental part of faith that it was the only consistent thing 8-year-old KP learned in both Hebrew and Sunday school.
