Zeke is so excited that he doesn’t eat animals. He loves to tell everyone, “I’m a vegetarian” whether the conversation has anything to do with what he eats or not. For the record, he is 99% vegan with me and 100% vegetarian with his dad. While I would love it if he didn’t eat dairy with Dad, I understand it can pose challenges, especially because his dad eats the flesh of the innocent (you reading this Jeremy?) but I am grateful that his dad is respectful enough of my wishes that he doesn’t give Zeke any meat and abstains from eating it in front of him. Right Jeremy? Right??
Recently, we met “The 300 lbs Vegan”, NFL Defensive Tackle, major hunk and good guy, David Carter Jr. Zeke was OBSESSED. Imagine if your 4 year old boy, whom you forced to watch football since day 1 (he was born at the start of the football season) met a 6’5″, 300 lbs. professional football player WHO ALSO DIDN’T EAT “AMYNALS”. Zekey ran right up to him and said “Are you the Raider? I’m a vegetarian too!” Before David could say anything about being vegan my boy busted out with, “But my dad eats meat.”
Ugh. Talk about a buzz kill. This is something I have to hear more often than not. 99% of the time when we discuss how eating meat is wrong, Zekey will say, “But my dad eats meat.” How am I supposed to reply? I would never badmouth his dad. Never. But this is a toughie because the truth is, his dad is being lazy and placing more importance on his cravings and tradition than on a life, just like the majority of people. And with parenting, we can run our mouths all day long but nothing we say will replace our actions.
This is why David Carter’s existence and activism is SO important, especially for boys and men. This guy lives in a world oozing with testosterone. A world where the bigger the steak you eat, the more of a man you are. Yet David stands up for his beliefs and calls foul on the bs. I imagine, when the players are toweling off, oiling up their bodies (lawd, someone get me a hankie, it’s getting hot up in herre), he’s taken some heat for it. He probably has to explain, time and time again, where he gets his protein. Good. Shut down the naysayers.Take one look at the guy and you can see how plantstrong and healthy he is. Trust me, you can see it 🙂 That’s his beautiful and wonderful wife, Paige. She’s not too shabby herself.
Boys desperately need male role models who empathize with all living beings, stand up to the critics, the cravings and the cultural norms and walk the talk. When Zeke told him about his dad’s carnivorous inclinations, David assured him, “It’s okay. We’ll get him there.” That moment meant the world to me. Screw the kid, MOM felt hopeful!
I have no idea if this lifestyle change has been easy for easy for David. It doesn’t matter because he is tackling the shit of it and with more people like him, we will get them all there!
On behalf of Zeke, thank you David.
