Pay-back time

1474: 

For those who won’t accept the dietary changes being suggested by vegans, there’s a hard lesson to be learned, notably in the health dangers of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, each associated with eating too much animal protein and animal fats.  Not to mention dangers to conscience.

With a weak conscience we are led into advantage-taking whether it is by supporting the fishing-out of oceans or the caging of hens.

We tend to think that what might matter to the ecosystem or to individual animals doesn’t need to impact on one’s enjoyment of  'the bounty'.  But abuse and exploitation has a sting in the tail, even though it’s not obvious immediately.  And because it isn’t obvious, we blithely continue our way of life, almost pretending that we needn’t bother about things that we’re actively condoning.  We figure that because everyone is doing it that we may think nothing of it.  And if we do think about it at all, then we realise things have been going this way for a long time, and it's now too late to change anyway.

The weird thing is that it's never too far gone, or never too late to change.  In fact a late change can be the most effective.  I’ve seen people in their 80s make a complete change attitudinally, and followed up with specific changes to their diet, in accordance with their new found non-acceptance of the norm.  And they've thrived.

We can see ourselves as being trapped by our own entrenched habits.  Perception-wise the door to our own cage is shut tight - we just can’t believe it can be opened.  But it’s deceptive.  Although the door may be opened, it may only remain open for a while.  And it can only be held open by a deliberate and determined intention.  And in this case, it's the intention to care about the animals’ plight that counts.  The door is kept open by resolve alone, and while propped open, we can start the slow process of escape from the cage.  And that involves giving away some of the advantages-of-habit for the sake of the greater good.

As we emerge, as the habit-self is changed, so we get the first taste of freedom and of course begin to feel all the better for it.  Sure, we have to deal with some inconvenience, at first.  But in the long run, our decisions are justified by the gratifying feeling of better health and lighter conscience.  It’s a straight forward exchange, from enjoying the advantages of being an abuser to escaping all of the imprisonment which that involves; shifting across from being the abuser to the role of being the repairer.

We all have to move that way sooner or later, and as soon as we do we can enjoy not only freedom but a huge expansion of personal consciousness.