There is something about being a vegetarian that both sets you apart from some people and connects you to others.

Maybe because I so often feel set apart from people who eat meat that the immediate connection to other vegetarians is so clear.

I was at a social gathering recently and while being a vegetarian had nothing to do with the reason for the party, the host did make a point of making sure there were veggie-only foods there and he even made homemade potato soup that was out of this world.
While I chatted with people at the party, however, it somehow came up with one woman that I am a vegetarian and she is a vegan.

Was this the reason we hit it off so well? I am not sure.

But we became friendly enough that we chatted about how hard it is to find veggie restaurants - and how interesting it can be that we are so often the subject of apparently good natured ribbing by everyone from friends to co-workers. We touched on the fact that we wonder why so many people who do eat meat seem to bring up the subject of our veggie-ism so often - and we never came to a real conclusion. Neither of us criticize meat eaters - but some meat eaters seem to enjoy taking the vegetarian lifestyle to task.

We had both experienced it.

The bond grew strong enough in a short time that we made plans to try out a vegetarian/vegan restaurant together. I hope we do it one day, and I hope our husbands join us - they are two meat eaters who don’t feel the need to try to convince us to go back to the dark side.