Awakened from Sleepwalking

I have no desire to insult anyone, but generally you will only get authentic from me. I say what I mean and I welcome bold truth and honest forthright people. I believe that those who are truly confident in themselves can be open minded and think about/discuss any subject without bias. Those with a mistaken sense of confidence in themselves shun open consideration of facts or any conversation that may contradict their [false] confidence. I am never trying to be unkind, though I have been taken that way. In fact, that is the furthest from how I actually am ‘IRL’.

I do not hate Native American, Intuit, etc. If the issue is starvation as likely was when “Jesus ate fish” (common comments to vegans), I am not putting that person on the top of my ‘target’ audience. But starvation is generally not at issue for anyone reading this, and to defend the consumption of animal products (rotting flesh and secretions) is defending catastrophe, torture, and death for the overwhelming majority - humans, animals, and our planet.

I now see them as they are…a dog is a cat is a bird is a bear is a cow is a human. I personally wouldn’t harm any of them. I regret every single one I knowingly had slaughtered, under ANY circumstances. It is possible to just change - to just revere life - to realize that inherently [most] humans were born with no desire to kill anyone, especially anything with obvious sentience. Rotting corpses and animal secretions feed no one anything positive or life-affirming, and the inhumanity and violence we cultivate runs deep through society. (Check out the study where they fed prisoners a strict plant-based diet and violence, assault, and re-imprisonment rates dropped significantly. Harming others violently and irrationally is poison for our soul!!!)

As a wise person said – “Being vegan is a joy realized upon becoming vegan.”

I didn’t know. I didn’t know my taste buds had been kidnapped. I didn’t know I was hurting others so badly. I didn’t know I had something on my mind, but I guess I did. I wasn’t unhappy before, I wasn’t dissatisfied - yet being vegan changed me. My head cleared. I didn’t know it wasn’t clear! My taste buds have changed so much since then…cheese or bacon or whatever I falsely believed to be *favorites* are not missed at all, and in fact, I no longer consider dead flesh or secretions as food under anything but the most desperate of circumstance. I felt (still feel) so good about everything, never having known I didn’t feel ‘good’ about everything ‘before’!!!

I will not bypass any opportunity to defend a harmless being who is simply trying to survive. People are generally very lucky, but to them it isn’t enough – kill kill kill - then state they are against violence and war. This paradox has been written about by many scholars – many of them were vegetarian or vegan because it makes absolutely no sense to promote and feed violence while claiming to be peaceful. They believed world peace was actually attainable if we just stopped perpetuating violence!

I do not care about anyone’s traditions…most are outdated parodies, and if cruelty or killing is involved to a sentient being they should cease immediately and evolve. Animals were NOT pets ‘when our ancestors were eating them’. It was a whole different world. Now an entire society walks around with an “I love animals” attitude while dragging proverbial blood trails behind them and are generally further burdened with diseases of the heart, brain, and circulatory system while they disregard the plight of other humans, animals, and entire ecosystems.

Whole societies saw people of other color as slaves, wiped out natives, have historically oppressed others for random irrational reasons, and now we are senselessly and systematically decimating all of the flora and fauna on Earth.

I try to live gently and kindly to the world, the animals, the other humans, and as I thoroughly enjoy my varied, amazing, carefully-chosen, and passionately loved plant-based menu, I feel incredibly delighted and humbled and honored and grateful.

Sweet posts about puppies, or sea turtles, or some socially loveable animals, while brutalizing most other species. Then as a society we say we do not judge or should not judge? That we are not shallow and superficial as to appearances? We are not narrow-minded? That we are decent and kind? This is preposterous for anyone who really thinks about it. Whose suffering and oppression is unacceptable versus whose does not matter?

I would never return to the person I once was. I see it all the time - people within a short time of being vegan, say they “feel like they woke up from sleepwalking”. I would totally agree. There is something so fundamental in recognizing that we aren’t that person anymore – that we do not feed violence or slaughter, that we rebuke oppression and discrimination – the recognition that we can feel true love for others of many shapes, colors, and sizes and feel their presence sharing this great world with us. That we place value on their lives. That we do not condone violence.

Some of us would gladly stand strong in a crowd of thousands, even if standing alone. We will evolve, as we have rid slavery and are legalizing LGBT marriage, forward we march.

When people see the gentle pig or chicken as just as worthy to life as their beloved dog…
…when we see the fish or lobster for who they are – suffering beings who are suffocating to death or screaming in pain…
…when we see the truth - that if you treat a chicken or pig or cow like a dog they will form the same bonds and respond the same – with love and emotion and INDIVIDUALITY, just like us…
…when people can see themselves – wrapped in the tortured dead flesh of other animals they would not want to harm, like some ghoulish horror-movie parody of a beautiful sentient soul…
…when people allow themselves to understand the destruction of our planet that has occurred and is ongoing, when they understand how much we harm ALL living organisms on Earth with our daily choices…
…I believe people are generally decent at heart and they will change.

Whatever a person’s irrational excuses are for perpetuating utterly unnecessary violence to others, recognize that none are rational or hold any credibility when exposed to light. For me, I simply feel it is very important for me to make that reality clear for the people who would choose to know a different path (as I did) - a path of love and nonviolence.

"Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act"
~ Albert Einstein

[go vegan!!!]