The profound

Saturday 12th February 2011

Since most of us aren’t in the military we aren’t used to being ordered around. In fact if anyone tries we react badly (unless we’re a child or an employee or a soldier). When someone says “change now” our immediate reaction is to tell them to piss off. We have a right to not be bullied, ordered or advised … but leaving that particular ‘right’ aside for a moment, if someone is bold enough to bring something to our attention (“you’re wearing your shirt inside-out, you’ve got lipstick on your collar”) we don’t have to take it as criticism, just a useful comment. It comes down to how we take things – positively or negatively.
We’re talking though here about profound change. My comment to you is not about some transitory matter but something as significant as one’s whole food regime. ‘Profound’ - it’s often worth talking about, although there’s always a risk in bringing it up, of causing offence.
Dealing with anything ‘profound’, advocating big changes (like going vegan), these events lodge in the memory as a stirring of faith, not the religious sort or like having faith in science but faith in ourselves. Specifically, profound thoughts point to the possibility we might be something more that we think we are, not in an up-yer-bum sort of way but more as a coming-to-know who we are. Painful at first maybe, looking at our own faults, but at the same time we’re looking at our own high points. All invaluable eventually.
That sort of focussing (who am I?) lets us plant seeds of deeper understanding which might turn out to fall under the heading of ‘bigger picture’ stuff. This is where we’re looking at a world of the future. And not necessarily our own but others’ future, one that might ‘outlive’ our own present lives.
The thing that makes it so profound is that almost any positive thing we do today might not come to fruition until after our own lifetime. The really ‘big change’ in our outlook may be our taking profound thoughts on board but not for our own immediate benefit but in order to specifically do something else; to motivate and inspire us, commitment-wise, to Animal Rights. That’s why vegans are rude enough to make comments and duly get kicked in the arse for doing so. But it’s why vegans emphasise the profound and not the mundane or superficial. The more profoundly different we want change to be the more it’s likely to be about others’ rights. A less profound attitude will focus on “my-rights”!!