Chatting about animal rights

497: It’s a great privilege to have something original and significant to say, that others mightn’t have heard before. It’s also our responsibility not to be censorious since everything we might say can all too easily frighten people off. We need to weigh our words and not let them fall too heavily. It’s not necessary to speak in high, piercing tones or get hysterical about ‘saying it as we feel it’. Maybe under-stating our own feelings, being a little inscrutable, holding ourselves in the background as it were, makes it more difficult to be written off too soon. We need to keep them guessing, to keep them focused on what we’re saying. Getting ‘the message’ across successfully may mean that we have to downplay our own emotional involvement in the subject. Talking ‘vegan’ isn’t about converting omnivores, it’s surely about opening up discussion. It’s like a parent explaining the facts of life to a teenager - it’s a delicate matter, it’s potentially embarrassing … but the aim is surely to make sex easy to discuss. If Mum or Dad are easy to talk to then kids feel comfortable discussing the details that they’re actually interested in finding out about. It’s the same with Animal Rights, once there’s ease-of-talking then details can be dealt with along the way. If I’m ever allowed to speak by someone who is unafraid of being embarrassed, I know that they may listen … at least for a while. I don’t try to say everything, there and then, as if there’ll never be another chance. I don’t have to play all my best cards at once ... and it follows that there is a time to talk and a time not to talk. If I’m sensitive enough I can tell when someone’s had enough. If I respect their bravery for asking me some potentially embarrassing questions I don’t want to rub salt into any wounds, but most of all I want them to maintain their bravery and their curiosity.