This post is bound to ruffle some feathers.
It might even cost me some followers.
But I promised to always show up with radical honesty, extreme authenticity, and raw vulnerability.
This one has been brewing in me for a while now, but I’ve held myself back.
So, here we go.
I’m very proud and grateful that, in 2001, I decided to walk my talk and stop eating meat and fowl.
Since then, I’ve also:
Stopped consuming dairy products
Stopped wearing (or using) leather, wool, fur, down
Switched to cruelty-free cleaning products
Use only cruelty-free makeup and hair care products
I’m not perfect, by any means. A good friend said it perfectly: “I’m 100% vegan 80% of the time.” For me, it’s closer to 90 or 95%, but the sentiment stands.
But the point is, I try every single day to do the least harm in the world that I can. And that includes to animals.
Now, that I’ve reached that auspicious 20-year milestone, I feel I’ve earned the right to speak my whole truth about living a plant-based lifestyle.
And that’s this:
I don’t think you can be fully self-aware if you eat animals or use animal products.
In my own journey into self-awareness, one of the things that became clear to me is that my life is not all about me.
I am part of a larger community and a global family.
I don’t have to get along with all of them. I don’t have to agree with them. I don’t even have to like or respect them.
But I do have to resolve not to wish or cause them harm.
That poisons the soul. I learned that one the hard way, so please trust me on this. If you learn nothing else from me, let that be it.
Wishing or causing harm to others poisons YOUR soul.
Animals are “others”.
Their pain, their fear, and their suffering count, also.
Just because they arrive at the grocery store in neat packages that bear no witness to their short, brutal lives of intense suffering doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
I’ve heard all the “reasons” people offer to justify an animal-based lifestyle.
“It’s written in the Bible that animals are here for us to eat.”
“Plants feel pain, too.”
“If we stopped eating animals, what would we do with them all?”
“I’m an athlete; I need meat for protein.”
“Animals eat other animals.”
“Eating meat is my choice/right.”
And on and on, ad nauseum.
All excuses. All justifications for not just allowing harm to come to other beings, but supporting it.
It breaks my heart. It infuriates me. It frustrates me.
How can anyone truly be self-aware when they can so easily turn a blind eye to the suffering of others?
I will leave you with two of my favorite quotes about animals:
“We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.” ~ William Inge
“The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being?” ~ Jeremy Bentham
Sending you all so much love.
P.S. Please tell me how this post made you feel, good or bad. I really want to know.