695:
When I considered becoming an animal
activist, I soon enough also became a vegan. I knew that would involve me in
much more than just avoiding meat and dairy. I’d experience shortages and
unavailabilities. I’d be cutting myself off from ‘normal food’ and therefore
seeming to be NOT normal. I’d have to get used to doing without; there’d be no
more cheese, no more cakes from the cake shop, no more honey, quiche, waffles,
and the list goes on. No more being-invited out to dinner because of the
complications of my eating habits. No more discussion of food with people
because talking with me leads inevitably to animal issues. But it wasn’t ever
solely about food or my social life. There were other important principles at
stake worth perhaps more than losing friends and favourite foods. Mostly, I
wanted to tread more lightly on the earth, I wanted to better appreciate things
around me, be a kinder member of my world. I wanted to transform myself from
clod-hopping brute to a more sensitive, gentler adult.
I faced a simple choice: I
could either carry on grabbing whatever I craved or I could be more circumspect
and use a bit of self control, and then see if I could keep it up. I suppose I
was aiming at becoming less attached to things, Buddhist-like. I was wanting to
be less nailed down, wanting to eventually enjoy
doing-without. And all this, so that in the end I’d be less tempted to
compromise my newly found principles. And these principles were, I sensed, my
gateway to transforming not only myself but my species. A big aim, so if I
didn’t pull it off then at least I’d have started something BIG. And on the way
I knew I’d be led to find out something important. And I think I did. I
realised that truth isn’t about attempting perfection or seeking enlightenment
or taking a ‘spiritual path in life’, but rather it is about experimenting with
half-truths and bringing them towards full-blown truths.
I had one basic principle as
my guide. And I aimed to follow it as fearlessly as possible, in the belief
that things will turn out well in the end.
I began to see things this way: that life is a laboratory
where we learn to get used to change, like it and not fear it, even radical
change. This wasn’t just changing for the sake of it but taking up change in
response to circumstances, when they demand it. Enjoy it? Perhaps that’s going
too far. To be at ease with it, yes. I wanted to know the truth (and don’t we
all?) and I figured that by getting used to change I could keep alive a
questioning of those things which others seem un-bothered about.
For
me, then and now, the most bothering thing I can think of is the routine abuse
of sensitive and sentient beings, particularly farm-animals. This seemed the
plainest truth: that abusing animals is cowardly and weak. My aim, in this
regard, was to move towards being brave and strong. The situation regarding
animals, I mean farm animals, animals being used for food and clothing, was
simply an example of social injustice; the reason it’s so bothering is that
there are so many who are so innocent and who are being so badly abused. My main aim then was to
better understand why my fellow human beings are so careless about animals, and
to do something about that. I wanted to examine the lack of empathy in people,
and see what was preventing empathy being a natural part of human nature.
It’s rather confusing, this
‘human nature’. For my own part, I think I know how to treat my nearest and
dearest ... with love and affection, wherever possible. But why should I stop
there? I have to ask myself if there’s any reason to stop anywhere - with
humans, animals, environment - any of it? Is there anything that doesn’t
deserve affection and care? And if there isn’t, then why are we humans being
violent towards each other, towards animals, trees, and all the rest of our
world?
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