my morning ritual has been fairly consistent. as i eat breakfast, i watch reruns of "the golden girls" on lifetime. (i loved that show as a kid and it still holds up.) after several months of this i have finally realized this epiphany: everything i know about life i learned from the golden girls. or at least, the values i place on myself and the standards by which to judge others. it's time to face this simple truth--that i try to be some sort of know-it-all like dorothy and batter inferiors like rose. everytime rose says a dumb thing, all of them take turns making fun of her with sarcasm, witty remarks, making faces, hitting her, etc. anything that belittles rose. after going vegan i thought that a lot of my negativity stemmed from meat eating. afterall, you are what you eat and if you eat fear and violence then you become that. from now on i'm taking a closer look at the pop culture that shaped me. something as seemingly harmless as a sit-com may have given me a great foundation for my ability to find humor in situations and make people laugh, but it may have also given me an equally detrimental foundation for value systems and social behavior.