The steak cut isn't the best or the worst. It's got a bit of fat around the edges, in it's raw form it's red with white streaks of fat throughout. I already have the grill on.So I take that slab of meat, go out and through it over the flames. I close the lid, listen to a few great cooking tunes. I only cook that meat until it looks like it's done, but far from being what anyone else would eat. I don't fuck around with salt of pepper or any of that shit. Maybe I'll have some potatoes in foil cooking next to my cut. With some diced onion or whatever.
But it's eating time, and this steak is done to my preferences. It's practically raw, but it's hot enough. I give most of the fat to the dog because I don't need it.
But as I spear it with the fork and run that knife across I can't help but wonder about the cow that I'm eating. I'm not a goodie-two shoes vegetarian type, my thoughts are philosophical. That cow lead a pretty sweet life actually. Most of us dream of a life like that. And as far as compared to the wilds it would be a great improvement. In fact we as people have been trying to emulate the lives of our domestic animals for years. The West's most popular religion, Christianity makes to attempt to hide this. Referring to their followers as The Flock, their ministers as Shepards.
If we freed our domesticated animals into the wild and refused to care for them I bet the majority of them would die off. The have evolved to be taken care of, just like humans have evolved to live in the civilizations we have built. Not that it matters, we don't really need these animals anymore. In fact it would probably would be more energy efficient to let them go out on there own, let them fend for themselves or die.
But what about the domesticated human? Do we ever get to have the option to break out of our pens? Do we get to be free and wild? No, we will never get that choice. And if you went into someones home and took away their extremely rare cut of steak and then kicked them out of their house and said, "Go now, you're free!" they'd be very unhappy with you. I bet if Cows could talk and communicate they'd have the same reaction.
Sure they get eaten eventually, but they get a life that most people would probably envy. A life most people seem to strive for.

And than I realize that thinking about such things isn't really all that healthy. Because than my hunger for beef turns into a hunger for cannibalism.