Veganism is a hideous thought

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Inconsistency is a headache. It's like burning the candle at both ends, trying to get the best of both worlds but ending up with the best of neither. So, if we are sensitive but have to be insensitive when it comes to certain habits, there's a contradiction and that means our being inconsistent.

We want improvement to our lives, preferably by way of following ideals. We try them out to see if they fit. For instance, take veganism - it's an appealing idea but one which is at odds with certain personal habits. One is caught, between the need to end certain habits and the unreality of something approaching perfection; we don't believe life-long habits are changeable; we don't believe there's anything even approaching perfection, so we might as well not consider that as an option. So, we revert to what we know, what sort of works for us.

But never quite satisfied with that, we constantly prod and poke and question. We might become 'semi-vegan' to see how it feels, changing foods, weighing revolutionary ideas. Moving towards consistency is about being not uncomfortable about inconsistency. This sort of change may take time and in the end it has to feel comfortable.

How uncomfortable it must seem to the confirmed meat-eater. But this is about perception and logic and not feeling nervous about making such a radical change to our eating habits.

I quote a 100 year old friend named Mary, who says she admires our vegan principles but the idea of our diet is a “hideous thought”. People, having spent so long eating 'traditionally',  imagine what it could be like, and shudder. There again, younger people are more familiar with new food regimes, and yet they might still shudder - they don’t like the trend, mainly because deep down they know all the stories they hear about farm animals are likely to be true, and don’t want to find out further information, which might serve to confirm what they're still trying to forget.