I agree with you totally, there is something liberating about sleeping wherever you want. Sometimes I take my sleeping bag out to the patio and fall asleep to the chriping of the crickets and the stars shining down, then wake in the morning to the birds happily singing their dawn chorus...there's really nothing like that and if one has never experienced it, they don't know what they're missing. I feel the same way about the porcelain throne, there's something constricting about using it. I live on a farm and you can pretty much drop trow where ever you are outside just when you feel like it....haha now that is freedom! Of course tact is appreciated too, nobody wants to step in your business! Also my mom grew up in south america at her parent's camp for kids and they had just hole in the tiled floor for a potty, I don't know if it had plumbing or just a crude hole, but it is something I always remember seeing (and using) as a child when down there.
Yeah, no joke, that could be an interesting topic, especially with a group of people like this, i'd read it.
I never had to rationalize it away because I grew up a meat eater, but I don't think it counts as rationalization anyway because even if you were someone who preferred veggies over meat naturally, you still have to eat meat (or animal products) for total health in spite of your inclinations, because it's just the way things are, your body requires it. Some of our most crucial vitamins are only abundant in animals foods, like vitamin K, a very difficult vitamin to get (and soooooo critical for tooth and bone health along with A and D) from your food in present day civilization and nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of in a vegetable diet...unless you want to eat about a pound of natto everyday (which would have other health consequences). Usually when I think of a rationalization, I think of almost a fib to allay our conscience so we can act in a certain way. I don't consider vitamin supplements an acceptable source of nutrients unless you have no access to the proper foods.
I eat lax RVAF, weston priceish. Meaning i go pretty heavy on animal products and attempt to keep them as raw as possible. usually the most I'll do is seared meat, except in social situations where quality raw meat isn't available. I also am big in to raw veggies because my body demands it, but the main thrust of my eating philosophy is If you can't eat it raw, it's not food for you, and listen to your body and eat what it tells you to and avoid foods it doesn't like.
I think it varies pretty widely for people just what exact foods they can eat, but that everyone needs pastured animal fats like meat, eggs, and if you can handle dairy or are unwilling to live without it, then that's fine too. I love dairy, and I think my body tolerates it pretty well. Last spring we got our 3 cows which are high butter fat breeds, guernsey and brown swiss and I lived on cream this summer. Drinking between a pint and a quart or more each day. I couldn't afford that financially but since we own the cows it was easy, they give so much milk. I also think due to that, I healed a lot this summer, I can now tolerate a lot more sugar than i could before. Not that I recommend much sugar consumption, but sugar has always been problematic for me and my tolerance thereof is a guage of my health status.
What part of SA are you in? I can't wait to visit africa some day, I haven't spent much time in the eastern hemisphere but I plan to as soon as I can!