Well, I guess it's been a while since I've written in this blog (mostly due to the fact that I've been using FB as a blog, but my daughter recently informed me that it's way more savvy just to share the link to my blog on FB).
...But maybe that's how I'm sometimes seen in the eyes of "conventional wisdom". Let's face it; society largely looks at vegans as freaks. I've had to navigate some experiences that lead to some degree of alienation or judgement since I decided to stop hurting other beings and living that way.
I'm not blaming anyone. I'm just saying that we live in a world where many people treat the phrase "I'm vegan" almost like fighting words.
And I get it- when some group of people comes along and challenges the status quo that can look freakish at first. But it's time to flip the whole story.
So why bother challenging the status quo here anyway? Ok. I know of three big reasons:
1. Kindness. Sentient beings don't seem to enjoy the imprisonment, torture and murder. It seems to be completely against their will. The pain and horror is obvious to anyone who just takes a look.
2. Personal health. The science is in. "The 4 food groups" was a made up story by the dairy and meat industries. Happy meals didn't really turn out to lead to actual happiness. Nutritional experts found out that people can easily get enough protein and other nutrients from plant based diets and that animal products were linked to all kinds of serious health issues that have now reached epidemic proportions in much of the world and especially here in the USA.
3. The environment. Again, the science is in. This business of raising animals for food IS BY FAR THE MOST DAMAGING THING HUMANS ARE DOING TO THE EARTH'S ECOSYSTEM.
100 billion animals per year are slaughtered to feed people; this is an insane amount of beings having artificially induced fast and full on life cycles on a finite little planet and it's creating some literally "shitty situations" for the ecosystem- the oceans could die, along with us. Just maybe if we stop factory farming right now or very soon and we really pull together we can have a chance.
Well, those seem like pretty important reasons to me. Some people really seem to hear me when I talk about those reasons, and that great! And sadly (and amazingly), some people who I know will sit with me in a discussion and try to hear me out and then still make those "bacon jokes" afterwards, as if I hadn't just told them how much I empathize for other beings and for the environment and for the challenges of the future human generations that they didn't ask for us to leave to them.
It would make a lot of sense to flip around our language here; I didn't act freakishly for wanting to be nice and feeling empathy. Nor am I being freakish for respecting science. But this word "vegan" carries that freak badge like a stigma.
Lets flip around the language because I'm a normal guy. I don't do weird things like murder or torture or support others who do that kind of stuff. I also think about the life cycles and decomposing cycles of various recourses that I use and I do my best to be respectful towards other beings around me in the ecosystem when I make choices.
That many people live differently and support factory farming (and do other things that I don't do like wear animals for cloths) does not make me freaky.
And yet when some people talk about vegans you would think they were talking about some kind of weirdos! Even one of my own family members said right to my face "vegans are assholes" when I tried to explain a concept to him that I will call "the rights of other beings who look different from yourself concept". More on that in a future blog...
And the "bacon jokes"... in case you don't know what I mean by that it's like when you tell someone about your empathy for other beings, your pain, their pain, the state of the environment- you share all that and the person says back to you "but bacon tastes so good".
Sadly, that's just where some people are at. I can work on accepting that but I'm not going to agree to wearing a freak badge, so what I'm thinking is maybe I don't want to be called a "vegan" at all. Maybe I can't relate this word. I NEVER COULD!
Maybe I just want to be called "Eliah". Also "Eli", "Dude" and "Stickman" are fine. And I wish the rest of the world would just assume that I do not murder and torture and do things things to destroy our ecosystem, and I wish that with that assumption NO WORD would be required to define that way of "normal-ness".
And I wish that any person who supports murder and torture and/ or things that compromise the ecosystem would be be seen as freakish themselves- not because I want them to be judged, but because this whole paradigm being turned on it's head would make a lot of sense if things like human survival, respect for other beings, love and happiness are priorities.
And besides, it just doesn't make sense to label someone who doesn't kill and torture others. You don't say "Oh my neighbor is such a humanitarian because he refrains from murdering and raping and torturing the other humans".
So I'm thinking of asking others to try and see my choices as exceptionally...
normal. I'm just this guy. There is nothing special about me for wanting to refrain from actions that hurt others. It just feels horrible when I realize that I have hurt an other; it hurts all us all and I wouldn't want to do it.
And if you want to take it a step further and see that it's NOT NORMAL, in fact it's kind of weird when someone tortures and rapes and murders other beings against their will, and it's kind of weird when someone supports that stuff, and it's REALLY DOES SEEM ODD if a person still wants to do it after most of the scientists figured out that it's bringing down the whole ecosystem- if you want to take that step and LABEL THAT BEHAVIOR go right ahead, I would totally understand. But I'm not asking for that. I'm just doing my part - like so many people are, to create a world where one day it will be considered very normal for a person to make choices based on mutual respect and health and any person who lives in that way is simply called "a person".
Ohm peace.
_______
Eliah is currently recording his seventh solo Chapman Stick album. It will be released during the summer of 2015 and available through eliahmusic.com.
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