Radical Change

2007:

How can radical change work for us? The thought of making big changes in our life, especially when they may not be understood by others, frightens us. Ethics frighten us. Ethical principles make short work of old behaviours we grew up with. Over the years we did acquire habits that made life easier but were distinctly unethical.

To radically alter a habit, especially a habit concerning three-times-a-day food, isn’t so easy. If we feel like a failure in life, and probably most of us do, going vegan will probably go wrong if only to fulfil our expectation that it will. If we’re going to fail, can we afford to take that risk?

For a start, we don’t think we’ve got the self-discipline to voluntarily kick a favourite habit. Truth to tell, we probably don’t want to kick it, we prefer to continue being as we are. But we know that it’s likely one day things will start to go wrong, then maybe we’ll try to change.

As our body fails and we see, for instance, that our eating habits are making us ill, even then we’re still reluctant to change. It’s the pleasure association we can’t let go of.

The body fails nonetheless, and we wonder what we’re facing for the rest of our life? Not only can we not ignore symptoms (of the ageing body) but we can’t face the upheaval of ‘change’.