Film crews

In the last few weeks, we have had a number of film crews filming at the temple. I suspect that there is a sudden interest in Wudang because of the movie, The Kung Fu Kid (The Karate Kid in North America). Yesterday, one crew had a somewhat hot American (Canadian???) woman talking about Taoism, but having a really hard time with the script because I don't think she really knew much about it, and there was one small crew that asked me for an interview, and I, being the reasonable sort that I am, said okay. I think that they were kind of disappointed. They really seemed to want me to be a voracious meat eater who was transformed by the power of Chinese taiji and Taoism. They weren't so happy that I have been a somewhat lazy lacto-ovo vegetarian for twenty years or so. They really wanted me to believe that becoming a vegan would help save the world from global warming, but I wasn't buying this as the most effective thing that I could do. I would place vegetarianism way down on my list of things that I could do - after stuff like driving a small car (or a hybrid), using public transit, riding a bike, turning off lights when I leave a room, not wasting water, buying less toys, wearing cotton.

It turned out the film crew was from Formosa (I hadn't even heard that name for Taiwan in 40 years or so). They were with Supreme Master TV. Oooookaaaay. I checked them out on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Hai). Can you spell 'CULT'? I'm kind of hoping that they lose my footage.

I will become a more serious vegetarian and probably mostly vegan in the near future; however, I think that the ethical issues regarding eating meat are far better reasons for eschewing meat. Factory farming is quite repugnant. Wherever possible, I eat free-range chicken eggs. The dairy products are a more serious issue. I have been to a dairy farm and it practically brought me to tears, and I will NEVER eat veal. Unfortunately, I've never heard of free-range dairy cows. I already drink soy lattes at Starbucks, but soy cheese really sucks.