For the first 25 years of your life you never thought about health. Or at least you weren’t consciously aware of such a concept or that it could be something greater than the basic health of not having the flu or not having a disease. That was the only measurement that mattered. And by the standards of western society you were just as healthy as anyone your age. You had some minor issues here and there but nothing the doctor couldn’t solve.
And then you met Sinéad when you were living in Dublin to pursue your rock star dreams. You had a nice beard going and caught eyes with this pretty Irish girl in a bar near the canal. It was spring and the promise of summer lingered on the horizon. She smiled and you struck up a conversation as young potential lovers do. She was a geneticist and you just happened to be reading the book “Genome” by Matt Ridley. What a crazy coincidence. You found out later in life from another girl Angela that this was called serendipity.
And it turns out she was much more than just a young PhD scientist working in a lab. She also ran marathons, read Leonard Cohen poetry and listened to Nick Cave and other cool stuff. And she was a vegan! The latter was something you hadn’t really encountered before. One previous girlfriend of yours was a vegetarian but for some reason you were never curious about it. Vegan was a whole ‘nother level!
You got to know her more. Went to her house. Spent time together. Went to concerts. She came to yours. There was a mutual attraction there. You were so different yet shared so much. You were this rambling musician who drank and smoked and ate junk. But you were also a young, handsome poet and a free spirit which are qualities that some girls still liked back in the day.
You connected with her and started to become more curious about her diet. She ate all this “fresh” food. How the hell was she so fit and running marathons. You wanted to know more and she lent you this book on the Okinawan centenarians of Japan (people who live over 100). The book was an atom bomb in your head. A new door was made to be visible and unlocked. You were already a rebel at heart but this was a new avenue. A new blind spot uncovered (there were still many more you would discover in the years to come). If only you knew what kind of obsession this would unleash for the next decade, if only you knew. But you had no idea at the time and probably neither did she.
You had some fun times with Sinead for a few months but for some reason it didn’t really work out. She got a little upset after you didn’t want to see her anymore after you had sex. Although she was an interesting person, beautiful and fit, you felt that something just wasn’t right with the physical chemistry or maybe she was too mature for you (5+ years older). Maybe you just wanted to be free and sometimes girls get too needy or something if they like you too much. This makes you feel uncomfortable.
Of course she thought you just used her which was half true because we always use each other in one way or another. Luckily she came to her scientist senses and you had one last coffee somewhere. She apologised for taking it so personally. You never heard from her again. She probably eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotted-minded you (cool film).
It’s a shame you lost touch with her and can’t find her contact info anywhere because you always delete everything. You wonder how she is and hope she is well. You send her some meta kindness. You imagine she is married with kids and maybe wondering what it all means and secretly googles you at work when she’s feeling bored and lonely.
You would like to thank her for setting you on a course that would change the way you look at the world forever. In fact, a course that would make you really look at the world for the first time. Those days were still ahead.
Now you are vegan of course, which is really the foundation of your existence. You prance away on you moral high horse and condemn those who don’t see the light.
But that’s a story for another day.