By Rabbi Karen Kaplan

Rabbi Karen Kaplan recently contacted VRG to alert us to an article on her blog, offbeat compassion, about her experience at what she described as “a phenomenal Vegetarian Resource Group vegan potluck.”

“You can be a vegan but still have an unhealthy diet,” one of my tablemates at a pre-Thanksgiving vegan potluck informed me. “Think French fries and all that grease.” I nodded sympathetically. It is hard enough to push people’s eating habits in one direction, let alone two at once. Another vegan sitting there with at least three varieties of cranberry sauce on her plate next to her tahini-topped zucchini pancakes asked how long I had been a vegan. I had to confess that I was there only because decades ago, my husband had belonged to their Baltimore-based group when it first formed. (It is now called The Vegetarian Resource Group.) He wanted to reconnect with old pals during our recent visit there; I came along to enjoy the food and meet offbeat people like myself, two of my favorite pastimes.

When my tablemate next asked a bit about me and I told her about this blog, she hopefully asked, “Does it have something to do with veganism?” Once again I felt compelled to spill out the unvarnished truth and say, “Well I can’t really say that it does.” Luckily, I rescued the conversation from dying prematurely by asking her to tell me a little about her interests as I ate my first ever vegan enchilada…”

On my way back home from Baltimore, I mulled over my hasty answer that my blog and veganism have nothing to do with each other. While there is no obvious surface connection, I thought about what I had heard and seen at that potluck. For one thing, they were handing out T-shirts that said, “Expand compassion” on them. Well there you are. I noticed too that several people brought their own plates and silverware, so that less paper- and plastic ware would be used, thus showing their consideration for the health of our planet. Posters abounded that reminded us to “be kind to animals: don’t eat them.”

Perhaps it is fair to say that both vegans and my blog followers and I are/aspire to be: purveyors of offbeat varieties of compassion.

Rabbi Kaplan writes about what people facing death ponder, value, and believe at http://offbeatcompassion.wordpress.com/about/

If you would like to assist with organizing The Vegetarian Resource Group pre-Thanksgiving potluck in Baltimore next year, contact Nina at [email protected].

For information on holiday recipes and other groups around the USA hosting Thanksgiving events, visit VRG’s Thanksgiving Page. It’s never too early to note these on your calendar.