Archive for the ‘Living raw’ Category

Clint Arthur wants to celebrate life by sacrificing a lamb

I ran across a program on line — sounded interesting… a program to ‘live like this were the last year of your life.’

It sounded interesting until I read the paragraph below. I was speechless! In this day, in America, there are people slaughtering lambs for “ritual sacrifice.” He goes on about what a ‘wonderful life’ the little lamb had and how it will be killed humanely and how it was raised for this. I can’t even type all the things going on in my mind! It’s completely crazy.

As a raw foodist, I know biologically our bodies aren’t designed to eat meat, as an animal lover I’m filled with anger, as an American living in a land of plenty and those people are paying near $500 for this “hand-picked opportunity” – sheesh, if they are hungry wouldn’t it be a better and more beautiful ceremony to have a blessing and prayer over a gorgeous handmade cornucopia filled with a bounty of beautiful exotic fruits and veggies? I’m sickened, just sickened that this Clint Arthur guy is ‘celebrating’ in this manner.

The Last Year of Your Life Program

Here is the description that used to be on his site before he changed it to reduce the “disgust factor”:

THE LAST DAY OF YOUR LIFE CELEBRATION, FEAST, RITUAL DEATH & REBIRTH CEREMONY is a special event limited to 35 Member Participants. This event will include the sacrifice of a live lamb which will become the centerpiece of our celebration feast. The lamb is a free-range grass-fed certified organic animal raised on a farm near Ojai, California. The lamb will never have been caged during its lifetime, and will be prayed over and blessed by a Native American shaman prior to its ritual slaughter during our ceremony. The animals on this farm are bred for this purpose, and this lamb will be killed in an entirely humane manner, according to Kosher and Halal ritual practices. Participation in this 24-hour event in Ojai will be by invitation only, with Attendees selected by Clint Arthur from amongst the Member Participants, at an all-inclusive cost of $495 per person.
___________________________
I sent this info to PETA in an email last month, but didn’t receive a response (I’m sure they are bombared with emails!) Recently re-checking Clints site I noticed they changed the text leaving out all the stuff about the poor little lamb. Also they changed it from “text” to an “image” so you can’t copy it …but techie me I just screen captured it and used an OCR program to copy it.

So below is the new “desensitized” text:

THE LAST DAY OF YOUR LIFE CELEBRATION, FEAST, RITUAL DEATH & REBIRTH CEREMONY is a special event limited to 35 Member Participants, This event will include a celebratory ritual and feast based on ancient religious and tribal customs, and is designed to bring you face to face with the fleeting nature of life and your own mortality. Participation in this 24-hour event will be by invitation only, with Attendees selected by Clint Arthur from amongst the Member Participants, at an all-inclusive cost of $495 per person.

Fellow vegans, please voice your concern. We have several months before he “celebrates life” by killing a lamb. Here is his contact info - and below that read 2 copies of emails that have been sent.

You might consider mailing a letter to the address because this email has an auto responder where you get a PDF of his program.

Clint@TheLastYearOfYourLife.com

Clint Arthur
702-987-0113
5348 Vegas Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89108

I tried to keep the energy positive and from a point of love instead of blaming and condemning too harshly as that usually is met with a closed mind…

Clint,

I love the concept of ‘living as if it’s the last year of your life.’
Fantastic practice!
No doubt received countless emails about your death ceremony.
I protest it of course.
I don’t care how humane you say you will kill an animal – it’s still unnecessary.
For one it’s biologically inappropriate for humans to eat flesh.
(Do some research- no claws, no fangs, super long digestive track etc)

Wouldn’t it be much cooler and totally win you a huge amount of fans to celebrate in a more exotic ceremony using an awesome hand woven cornucopia filled with an amazing selection of exotic fruit! Man have you seen dragon fruit! Beautiful.

You’ve seen those images of tribal celebrations where they bring in a big board filled with tropical fruit carried by 2 people. That would be a beautiful celebration.

My hope is that you would choose a higher path and try something else than the sad event that you have planned.

Sincerely,
Julie Howell
Texas

Another email sent by another animal rights advocate:

Clint,

Your program shows for the last day of your life celebration:
“This event will include the sacrifice of a live lamb which will become
the centerpiece of our celebration feast.”
The Last Year of Your Life Program

(ya we know you left out the lamb bit, but it doesn’t really change the
ambience)

Now there is also some stuff in there about ritual death and rebirth
there. So what are you going to do? Bring the lamb back to life?

Perhaps, you’d enjoy the story below about another lamb whose existence
changed a kingdom. You could contribute to that change and people would
really get their money’s worth.

–
In friendship,
prad

… with you on your journey
Towards Freedom
http://www.towardsfreedom.com (website)
Information, Inspiration, Imagination – truly a site for soaring I’s

~~~~~~~~

There are many stories told about Buddha the Compassionate One. They
carry the eternal message with a simplicity that any child can
understand. Here is one of those gems.

The Buddha is taking a walk. He gazes at the beauty of the flowers of
the field and says: “O trees and flowers of the field! How trustfully
you turn your faces to the sun! And how trustfully nightingales and
doves take shelter in you! Alas! man hurts the birds and slays the
animals! The wisdom of man is drenched in blood!”

A herd of goats and sheep passes by. The Buddha finds that the herdsman
is driving them with difficulty: there is an injured lamb who is
limping and slowing the herd down. Affectionately, the Buddha takes the
limping lamb on his shoulder. The herdsman tells him that the animals,
100 goats and sheep in total, are being taken to the king for sacrifice
this evening. The Buddha, carrying the lamb, chooses to accompany the
herdman.

At the place where sacrifice is to happen, the man in charge is about
to strike the sword against the first goat, when suddenly the Buddha
exclaims “Great king! let not the man strike! Take my life as a
sacrifice, O king! and spare the goat!”

The words of the holyman move the heart of the king, who then asks the
Buddha to speak to the people. And the Buddha says:

“O men! you can take life easily but, remember, none of you can give
life! So, have mercy, have compassion! And, never forget, that
compassion makes the world noble and beautiful. Remember, too, that all
living beings are linked together in maitri [friendliness, compassion].
Therefore, resolve that you will live on bloodless diet. Verily, in
gentleness is the crown of life!”

The next day, a decree is proclaimed by the king. The order goes forth
that none shall henceforth kill for sacrifice or for private pleasure.
For life is one through mercy and compassion.

Today is the 2nd Anniversary of my Burger Museum. 2 years ago I bought a cheeseburger and fries at McDonalds…and put it in this jar.

If you compare to the first post of my Burger Museum  you’ll see the cheese now looks a little darker – otherwise, pretty much the same. I dusted this jar for the photo – the grime you see is on the inside. The burger fell about the jar when I took it down from its “show place” (okay, it’s on top of the frige) so I opened it to reposition it and took a whiff to see if it had any odor. It had a slight odd chemical scent.

I got the idea of making my own Burger Museum from watching Morgan Spurlocks movie “Super Size Me.” A thought provoking and a bit scary movie. Watch it and don’t miss the bonus material. Start you’re own burger museum. Check out others by searching on Google for “burger museum” and join the club!

I suggest wearing a disguise to go to your local fast food joint (you know, so your raw food friends won’t see you and point and call the raw food police).

The whole point is to illustrate that this IS NOT FOOD!

Please remember this the next time you’re having some fast food cravings. Drink some water, eat lots of fruit and run, RUN, RUN AWAY – it’s only the drug of junk food wanting it’s fix – don’t feed that fix.

Live raw, live well, eat fresh fruit and dance full of vibrant health.

love,

Julie

Sometimes, when I’m paying attention, I am mesmerized when I slice open some beautiful raw fruits or vegetables. It is all so amazing. I wanted to write about how beautiful it was but the word beautiful just wasn’t enough. I found the word “resplendent” in my Thesauraus: shining brightly; full of splendor; dazzling; splendid. It’s a good word.

There is no question in my mind that fruits, vegetables and greens were created to be resplendent so that we would be attracted to it and and want to eat our fill. It couldn’t be any simpler! Resplendent colors – (open a papaya!); incredible designs -(check out a cauliflower up close); amazing aroma (the list is too long!)

What about nuts and seeds? Look at the regal sunflower with its bright yellow petals. Almond shells hanging on a tree are covered by a thin layer of bright green meat that tastes like a Granny Smith apple. Look at dark green beautifully curly kale, so rich. Now think about that which we shouldn’t be eating… (I started to write some examples, but they weren’t resplendent and I didn’t feel resplendent writing the words.)

Mother Nature gave us a big clue what to eat: it will be resplendent! It can be so simple.

A really cool thing about preparing raw food is that you can keep working with the finished product. I really don’t know what to call it – for example if you cooked a lasagna – you probably couldn’t puree it and re-cook it to create a new meal.

But raw food, for example raw soups you can dehydrate, or add more raw ingredients and dehydrate into a raw cracker. Raw food never needs to go to waste.

I made a few special recipes to take to Thanksgiving with my family, (they were eating cooked). I made a green salad to share that turned out really good.
Chopped romain with pecans, diced tomatoes, diced yellow bell pepper, soaked goji berries, strawberries, cucumbers. With a light balsamic vinegar/olive oil/honey/cinnamon cranberry dressing.

My side dish was Bartlet Pears with Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce and Spiced Ginger Cream. Found the recipe on Gliving.com – this sauce had an amazing flavor!

 I also had a slice of carnival squash topped with raw dressing. Just a few bites of that and I was stuffed! Guess all those nuts fill you up. I soaked the squash in salt water, drained it, dehydrated it for a couple hours which softened it a bit. Then I rubbed it with cumin. The dressing was a handful each of pecans, walnuts, almonds. Processed with a little squash, celery, sage, onion, parsley, salt, pepper. Pretty tasty!

For dessert I had a Mango Cream Tart (also from GLiving.com)

What to do with the leftovers? The squash and stuffing I turned into a savory raw bread! I ran the squash and nut stuffing through my Omega auger juicer to turn it into a paste, adding some left over red and yellow bell pepper. Then I stirred in fresh ground flax seed, the leftover cinnamon cranberry sauce, dulse, kelp, chopped raw olives, sunflower seeds and a little coconut oil. Spread out on 2 teflex sheets and dried at 110 for a few hours.

 I cut it into little squares that remind me of those little “coctail rye” bread loaves. Probably high in calories with all the nuts. So I’ll make them last! Should be good with lettuce and tomato!

The mango tart was only a 6″ tart, but was so filling I only had a sliver. And everyone else was chowing down on 3 different kinds of cooked pies and didn’t try mine…so I had lots left over.

I put the entire tart in a food processor with 2 bananas, a little fresh ground flax seed, vanilla and cinnamon. Spread it on one teflex sheet about 1/2 in thick or less. Dried it at 110 for a few hours. When it was dried enough to handle, I cut it in small squares – spreading honey on some and adding coconut just for fun, (then dried some more).

These turned out good. Probably could have added something to sweeten it more – but I think they will be good as a side to a green salad with pears I think!

I’ve been wanting to try a glass straw for a while. I typically don’t use straws, but I love the fact that glass straws are an environmental alternative to adding more plastic to the land fills and water ways. And of course the less plastic touching your food the better.

So I finally got around to ordering some and found the COOLEST glass straws on the internet!

They are handcrafted by California glass artist Mark Black from GlassParadise.com They are the only ones on the internet I found that are these wonderful solid colors. You can buy one or a set (great pricing, fast shipping).

And if you think that a glass straw is something that will break the first time you use it, don’t worry – glass straws are made of the same Pyrex glass that sturdy cookware is made with. These are their standard 9″ straw – you can see that they are plenty long enough for my quart jar for juice and smoothies. And they will also make longer ones and fatter ones. The fatter ones are called “Smoothie Straws” though I found these to be fine for smoothies – but my smoothies aren’t chunky.  And they even have very inexpensive little straw brushes to clean the straws! (for those times when you forget to rinse when you finish using them)

As an artist I love that buying from Glass Paradise supports other artists – independant glass blowing artists! Check it out!

(Okay, so I wrote a whole entire post about straws…but I just get excited when I find such a great deal for such a cool thing)