529:
I’m an advocate of animals having rights (obviously!) but I
wouldn’t necessarily tell anyone that gratuitously. Why should others know when
bringing up this subject is as off-limits as atheism is for those with religion.
And anyway, why do I need others to know this about me? I don’t need them to
approve my stand … but it’s likely I do need their approval of me as a person.
So, I want them to see me as the sort of person they might admire, at least for
being open enough to want to talk about it, even if I know they don’t agree
with me. Likewise, from my point of view, I’d like to be sure how open another
person is. I’m not very interested in grudging toleration or polite approval of
me, especially if I know they have a closed mind on this matter of animal-use.
If you take
your clothes off and lay in the sun, you are exposed to the sun’s rays (for
better or worse). Vegans need to be less interested in others’ “knowing that
I’m a vegan” and more interested in their knowing that I have empathy; that I
am, on all fronts, interested in how people feel. I’d like to expose how I
feel, to let others feel safe enough to expose their own feelings (similar or
opposite). I’d rather know what others are feeling, whether hostility or
affection, than not know. I would always want to know how they truly felt about
me and then how they felt about this subject.
If you meet
an open soul on your travels, ‘this subject’ might come up. It might be one of
many things you talk about. I can tell a lot about a person who is willing to
talk about these matters who might already know where I stand on them and know
that I know where they stand. I respect that.
If I meet a
person who is adamantly closed-off on this subject then I pick that up almost
straight away, and I know that talking about it with them would be like pushing
rocks up hill - the more talking I do, the more antagonism is shown, and for my
part it’s so much breath wasted.
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