Alone

1906:

What’s it like being an animal activist, someone who wants animals to have a life but whose words fall on deaf ears? With almost everyone chomping away on their meat and various animal secretions, nobody seems to be listening, because we are the enemy, for denying them their simple pleasures.

As vegans, we know how it feels to be alone, but perhaps it’s essential, because it lets us empathise more closely with animals. It helps us not forget that domesticated animals are not only alone but at the mercy of violent humans. It’s no consolation though, for us personally, when we realise the apathy and silence of most people around us. I can’t help seeing this hardness of outlook, even in dear friends. I can see them desperately trying to shield themselves from taking the ‘soft’ view. They’re harder than I want them to be, harder than they want to be. But they won’t communicate with their soft side for fear of what they might become.

         

I want to be an advocate for animals but I do want to feel close to my friends. However, at this point in time, it seems one must be sacrificed for the other. The louder I speak up the sooner my friends seem to turn off and walk away.

         

I don’t underestimate the pain of being marginalised. I know it could be dangerous to feel so alone. It may drive me crazy but I also know that, more dangerously, my need for acceptance might tempt me back to my old idiot-ways.

         

I have to tell myself that if I’m serious about ‘the greater good’, I have to find ways of NOT feeling alone and not feeling that it’s all pointless. It helps to know other vegans, it helps perhaps to meet up with a whole bunch of animal rights activists. But in reality, we all live apart. We’re on our own. This is one big personal challenge for most vegans - not in the changing of our diet but in the facing up to a diminished social life and a shortage of simpatico companions.