Awake

232:

As a vegan I sometimes feel like an alarm clock, resented at first for waking you up but later appreciated for jolting you into the new day, a new way of seeing things ... (or not, as the case may be).
I often feel as if I’ve been thrown against the wall, so my bell no longer works and my timer’s stopped, and that’s because I haven’t learnt how NOT to make myself unpopular. Am I trying to wake people or alarm them?
As a persuader I’m sometimes heavy booted. But surely you understand I’ve got good intentions? I can be a bit pushy, like an old time preacher but that’s because I like talking up Animal Rights and I forget I have to be subtler.
I sit here scratching my head, asking how to get hardened omnivores to like eating vegan food or like animals enough to make a few personal sacrifices. I know I won’t get far by finger wagging or disapproving or making value judgements, nor by “look-at-me-look-at-my-health-aren’t-I-the-clever-one”. But there again I need to be energetic, sure of my arguments and at ease withal.
I can start by killing off the strict, clean-living image of an eater of dull-but-nutritious food. If it has to be about food then I’ll get further by letting my friends taste what I eat, and get them to want to eat that way themselves (and I’m talking here about delicious food that isn’t expensive or exotic). Let them see an attractive lifestyle and hear me enjoy my strong arguments, as if it’s a breeze, as if it’s ridiculous for me to think any other way. Let them be ‘wowed’ at my plan for the Earth’s brilliant future and see why I want to leave behind all those trashy, go-nowhere conventions that others follow.
For that I don’t need to push or seem desperate when I argue my case. I’m already there, safe and sure, and in a different culture with a different sensitivity. I don’t need to draw attention to it by seeming better than anybody else but by coming across as an experimenter. I’m probably showing off a bit (I can’t help it!), but only to present some life-saving ideas as part of a grand plan - and if it seems whacky (this preposterous idea of not using animals for anything) my aim would be to allow the penny to drop, to let the idea do the work for itself. It’s not my job to rush anyone. I’ve no need to prove I’m different or give anyone an excuse to stamp me ‘crazy’. Instead I can simply act like a radio station that can be tuned into at will, with me presenting good ideas for improving the quality of life. If I’m telling a good story it should be able to link issues of social justice with those of living harmlessly. Then I can let people draw their own conclusions.
As an advocate for animals and for human welfare my message should be approximately the same as every vegan throughout the world, a simple, subtle and soft promotion for non-violent progress. For me that’s the great challenge - to find subtler and more persuasive ways of reaching others without using sledge-hammer tactics or the ugliness of such slogans as ‘meat is murder’.