The fluidity of change

Vegans have made one or two really quite dramatic changes in their lives. For a start, they’ve replaced the items in their fridge. They’ve changed their whole lifestyle from the one they’ve always known. (Now, today of course, there are ‘lifers’, vegan from birth).
Vegans may have made certain changes but the need is still there, to change. I mean the whole continuing process of change itself breathes life into life. Change is like cycling. You curse the hills but love running down the other side.
As vegans we need change to keep on our toes. We have an ‘opposition’ out there, amongst them some ferociously determined, clever, vocal people with opinions. We need to put them in their place, no, that sounds arrogant, we need to gently put them right about a couple of important things, but how? Gently?
Since we may not know how to be ‘gentle with the opposition’ all this is idle speculation to be saved up for another day. One day we’ll be speaking boldly … but back to today. Back to change. We, as vegans, need to change lots of things about ourselves, beyond the fridge door. But if change is the freeing process why wouldn’t we want to change? Each day is an opportunity for change.
Importantly though, vegans need to show we’re still changing, evaluating and discriminating, according to ‘fair’. To be fair is to be entertaining even those thoughts eschewed before, to show no fear of being fair. We must know of ourselves that we are ‘fair-evaluaters’ (just in case previously we’ve formed an opinion unfairly and just got stuck with that opinion ever since). If we humans have intellectual advantages over other life forms we too can weigh things ‘fairly’. If that’s in place nothing can go wrong. Change tests the differences … and isn’t that what vegans are trying to do? To find out what exactly are the differences between omnivore-mentality and vegan-mentality. That’s all that stands in the way of human development, surely?
Change is the key here, not dramatic change but a bubbling sense of change going on all the time. An opening up of the receptors to whateer is coming in. Our effort is surely to keep our attitudes fluid and growing and on the move. We need to be constantly readjusting things, underlining things. Ethics is like a shopping list. It’s like keeping a well stocked kitchen. We change things around for variety and new experiences. So too should we, with our deep and meaningfuls, our ‘views and attitudes’
Vegan animal advocates (almost) have the responsibility not only to promote plant-based products but to advocate change. There’s a deep rooted fear of change in us all. But there’s a healthiness in change, in getting used to it and ‘getting over’ it ... getting to where it becomes de rigeur. I’m thinking about doing some things without thinking, almost. An auto-piloted yet fluid sort of human!
Everything benefits from a little heat-of-change but it’s not an easy sell. Change is so frightening to us that nothing will shift attitude. Opinions might have been rehearsed all our life and are now stuck. It often takes a dramatic illness or near death experiences to jolt us into change … and then it’s done reluctantly.
Since change is almost the same as fresh air, we can enjoy it and then, so help me, we can go on to see why we need it in our lives.