Doing without

Monday 1st March 2010

Veganism is dependable. It mirrors our day-to-day life. It monitors non-violence (in the food we eat) and non-violence in everything else we do too. Taking this to its glorious extreme, I suppose one could say that in terms of regard, there cannot be any difference between regard for the non-sentient and the sentient. I reckon being vegan develops respect for pots and pans and cars and kids. Maybe that’s drawing a rather long bow, but when I considered becoming a vegan it was always going to be for the bigger reasons, bigger than just avoiding animal food (life being not only about food and clothes!!).
We are all consumers. We’re all users of resources and we know full well that, environmentally, we’re all treading on the roses. But we know we should tread more lightly, value things more, do the “right” things more if only to appreciate better the power everything has on us … and speaking of power, surely at one time or another, we’ve all recognised that we each have a powerful ability to transform ourselves - from clod-hopping brute to sensitive, gentle adult? We can transform ourselves if we want to … if that’s where we want to go. It’s our choice, either to grab whatever we can or to be more constructive. Maybe the time of squandering is past. Maybe we need to become less emotionally engaged with ‘things’ and learn to live a more Spartan life. If we can be less attached to ‘stuff’ and remain fully satisfied with that sort of life, well then, I reckon we’ve made it!