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[July 23, 2002 20:52]
A lot has happened to me since I last wrote in any of these pages.
I was unable to find a job in the field I desire.
My roommate situation imploded in on itself as a romantic breakup among the crew brought ruin to the plan.
The only good news has been how chance seems to always place me near a fount of vegan goodness. This time, instead of being less than two blocks from where I live, this cornucopia is less than 2 doors from where I work. Even the name lends itself to my fortuitous feelings: The Lucky Palate.
Positively delicious.
[June 29, 2001 01:27]
I have moved since the last time I have pontificated about my eating habits. I am still lucky enough to live about a block from a consumer co-op, which can and does make things easier, but the major grocery stores currently carry an insane amount of vegan-friendly fare around here. When I last vacationed in the Chicago area, I was very focused on how the standard grocery stores compared to the ones here and they are still somewhat behind in the game. Not surprising to me in the least having grown up from the frame of mind prevalent there, but I will say that the fact the soy milk is easy to find everywhere, even in the heart of slaughterland makes my day sometimes.
I did not keep track, but the word "vegan" was mentioned at least once a week on some television show I happened to be watching this last season. I do not know exactly what this means for the state of the universe, but it does make it more likely that my restaurant excursions will be a little less frustrating.
We recently had the Food Network added to our basic cable lineup. The shows here are pleasantly horrifying for me. There seems to be zero acknowledgement of vegan practices on any of the shows. Iron Chef does rock and tofu appears in comforting amounts, but this is tempered by real-time representations of frisky seafood being forcefully removed from their homey tanks, extracted from the living by the flat blades of swung cleavers, and trantformed into food in under an hour. Almost every recipe that shows up on other Food Network shows includes some kind of dairy product, but I continue to watch to see if any changes occur for this bastion of middle america and also knowing the proper ingredients to substitute, even if the varied chefs of FN refuse to acknowledge even the possibility.
[November 28, 1999 19:19]
Wow. I have been a vegetarian for 10 years. Someone congratulate me. When I first started down this road, I could have never known the experiences it would have brought into my life. I would not trade them for anything. After a decade, I cannot imagine willingly putting pork to palate, meat to mouth, fish to fork, veal to vomit-maker, and I am heartened to see how the world has changed around me since I first took this path.
I live nary a block from a co-op which carries everything I need to be healthy and happy. At least in the Seattle Metro Area, people don't blink when I ask them about ingredients or make a special reqeust, and in other cities, the blink only happens once or twice these days and is mostly hard to notice. The world still has a long way to go. I still run across unfathomable attitudes in friends and strangers alike, but, bottom line, things are better.
If anyone caught the Thanksgiving Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode, then you probably know where I am coming from. When a line about Thanksgiving being the yearly ritual sacrifice of a turkey can be dropped without major reaction written into the script, then I can only presume some people are coming to their senses. Let's not forget the mention of Tofurkey on Felicity. It was a little bit unclear why the characters were being "forced" to eat it, but still interesting nonetheless.
It all physically started on November 5, 1989, almost nine years ago, now. The mental processes, however, began before that and as the cliche goes, thought led to action. I was attending college at Northern Illinois University, which is situated in DeKalb (60 miles west of Chicago). I was in the middle of the Fall semester of my Sophomore year. I am sure I would have eventually become a vegetarian, once I was exposed to the possibility, but two things about this situation sped up the process. One was a class I was taking in Business Law (I know, the connection is not immediately obvious), and the other was a woman I was interested in, who has turned out to be one of the best friends I have ever had. This friend and I, we fight a lot, but never about veganism, at least not yet. Usually, we fight about stupid things that have nothing to do with anything, so they won't be mentioned here. In fact, we are currently in a fight about nothing wihch has lasted over two years, but her influence will always be there, an anchor in my life. Back to the point.
First, the class. At the time, I was majoring in Finance and trying to complete my College of Business requirements so I could be admitted into those hallowed halls. We had to do a paper and for some reason I chose to do it on Animal Patents. Back then, a big deal was made about the rats used in cancer research. A few of them were genetically engineered to be more useful in the research (in other words, destined for a lingering, most likely painful, death). As I wrote the paper, I thought more and more about the preconceptions behind even contemplating putting a patent on an animal. Patents, in my mind, were for machine processes. They were meant to preclude others from using the new process for a limited time. The whole idea presupposed two potentially abhorrent ideas causing me to think about my relationship with animals in a new way. One, that we have the right to use animals for our own ends, just as we use oil or steel or just about any other inanimate resource. Two, it seemed to me, at that time, that the whole idea equated animals with machines. Machines are used to make our lives easier, to make processes proceed more quickly, or to do things human beings are physically unable to do. Placing a patent on an animal seemed inherently wrong to me.
What gives us the right to use animals for our own ends? On the surface they seem different from oil, steel, and even trees. They have eyes. They (the majority) have blood coursing through their veins. They feel pain. They seem a lot like us, do they not?
Now, second, the seed of these thoughts WAS planted in my mind by another human being, but she was nowhere to be found in November 1989. She was actually on the gulf coast of Texas attending Texas A&M University at Galveston studying Marine Biology, or something to that effect. I met her my Freshman year and in February of 1989 I had decided I was in love with her (that whole situation merits a Web Chronicle, but the chances are slim). She was a vegetarian and very vocal about it. I saw something attractive there, but was not willing to stop my flesh consuming habits for someone else. I instinctively knew that without the proper motivation any ethical course would be doomed to failure. She moved to Texas that Fall and I moved on with my life, but I suppose I never forgot the idea that it was possible to survive without consuming meat.
So, one Sunday in November of 1989 I was sitting around in my dorm room before a fine dinner in the cafeteria thinking about animals and their relation to me. I could not even fathom going downstairs and eating them. I decided if I could make it through the following meal without eating meat then I could make it through Monday and Tuesday and so on. So I did. Or rather I didn't. I didn't do what practically everyone else was doing. I didn't eat what the majority of my peers were eating. AND, I did not make a big deal about it. I didn't discuss it with anyone at the time. I just did it. Cold turkey, as it were.
However, the idea of excluding cheese, eggs, and other dairy products didn't really enter into the equation at that time. It was the death of the animals that bothered me at first. That was easier to see. Although part of my motivation for not eating them was derived from the animal patents paper, I did not draw the connection completely until a couple of years later, and more prodding from my friends. Your friends can see more than you can at times. They see where you are heading, even when you can't. Listen to what they have to say, but DO make your own choices. Always.
By this time, my friend had moved back to DeKalb from Texas and was again in my life. We both became more involved in an animal rights group on campus called The Student Committee On Animal Welfare (SCAW). At these meetings, we met our first vegan. The whole idea was alien to us, but across time one comes to see the logical and emotional connection and progression from vegetarianism to veganism.
For me, the final link between veganism and daily life is unfortunately rooted in death. It is linked to the death of animals and strangely to the death of friends. The vegan mentioned in the last paragraph was named Tom. Tom was killed in a car accident in 1991 and his words and actions continue to be an inspiration to me. He never forced his ideas on anyone and neither do I. I hope these words are not being conceived as forceful. You may stop reading at any time, but the key to everything is that we do not have any stronger a claim to this earth than any other animal upon it. We do not have any right to say that this planet is ours, that this universe even knows we are here. Sounds a tad bit atheistic/paganistic, but that is fodder for a yet another separate set of web pages. Part of the point of veganism is to lessen one's impact on the life around us. Not being alive would be a wonderful way to accomplish this, don't you think? Tom's death reminds me of that simple truth. My existence is not going to cause any more death than it has to. It might be obvious, but for me it rings true to the core of my soul.
Why do I feel the need to communicate these thoughts? I contradictorily stated I do not want to force my ideas on anyone else. Alienation from friends, family, human beings in general is the last thing I would like to accomplish. However, with death all around me, it often seems the only alternative. Yet, I know I cannot reject the preciousness of human life any more than I can condone the senseless death of non-human animals. Therefore, my actions usually serve as example. You cannot see me right now, hence these words. You cannot watch me living day in and day out doing my best to avoid dairy products, leather, or non-animal-tested bathroom articles. But, you can read these words. You can think on them or you can ignore them. Most of all, they might, just might, resonate within you now or at a later date. If you have things in common with me, then you will feel better knowing there are others out in the world just like you who cannot move through life ignoring pain and suffering for the sake of pleasure and supposed health. If you think these words a joke, then I cannot do anything about it except ask that you think again. My mind changes often in regards to so many things, but veganism is one of those things, once embraced, that has been reinforced again and again, day in and day out, by my every action.
"I could never do that. I just love my steak!"
I ate and loved steak for 19 years! That kind of comment makes no sense to me, especially after I had told someone that
the idea of meat is rather repulsive to me. Just about every time it is revealed that I avoid eating any animal products,
a variation of this comment is made. What is the point of a comment like this? I just love my falafel! And I do, but would
I comment on it right after someone starts talking about the large fish they just caught over the weekend? I think not.
"What about the dinosaurs who gave their lives for the petroleum products we can't do without?"
Someone emailed me with a comment along these lines. Probably meant as a joke, but ludicrous either way.
I certainly don't suggest that we do away with human evolution as we know it. Veganism is about drawing ones ethical
line as close to complete non-suffering as possible. Dinosaurs might or might not have suffered as they died, but even
in sarcasm, does it make much sense to even ask a question like this? It goes along with the question about the millions
of organisms (including field mice and such) which die through the processing of crops every day. My simple answer to
that particular argument is a common one. Most crops go to feed factory farmed meat animals. If that ceased (o. k., if it
were lessened) then less animals would die, because less crops would be needed to support human beings. Common
sense. Arguments about animals dying from people who eat meat are probably some of the most hypocritical arguments
I can think of. In any case, using less petroleum products would be a great thing, since I'm on the topic. Everyone
should drive less and use the least amount of plastic that they can. This must be my obligatory common sense paragraph.
"You can't fight the food chain."
HAH! I've heard this comment more times than I'd care to count. I would assume most people would consider human
beings to be at the top of the food chain. Great. More power to us. Isn't abuse of power a bad thing? I thought so.
The food chain seems almost irrelevant when applied to human beings at this stage of the game. The food chain is
about survival. We don't need to consume or use non-human animals in order to survive.
"God's word tells us it's o. k. to consume animals."
This comment is a direct quote from an email I received. I've heard variations of this theme almost as many times, if not
more, than the food chain one. I've heard the two ideas from the same people in one conversation and they clearly
contradict one another! The food chain idea puts us on the same "level" as animals and the God idea puts us high
above them. Any time religion comes up, one is opening a huge can of worms. I would just like to say that any one
stating that the Bible practically mandates we eat meat is reading what they want to see into the words printed on those
pages. The simpliest place to look for where people might be getting this idea are the passages where we are given
dominion over animals. I hardly think we need to be given dominion over anyhing. As humans, we have done a great
job taking it wherever we can get it. I am prepared to accept the idea, but no where does it say we should turn animals
in products to satisfy some insatiable need based no where but in the basest of human desires. Pleasure.
"Let's go to McDonalds... Oh yeah, I forgot you don't eat meat..."
They didn't really forget. They just didn't want me to think they had forgotten. It seems to me that others often
care about my veganism more than I do! I would love for everyone in the world to stop using animals for their
own ends, but I know that is not going to happen any time soon. I know people don't think I'm a fool and I
don't think they are, either, so please, there are many other reasons besides the meat products to not go to
McDonalds or a million other restaurants. If I decide to actually go there for some reason, then I would thank you
for respecting that fact as much as I'm able to accept the fact that you are purchasing a doulble-bacon-cheeseburger.
"But what exactly is wrong with cheese/milk/dairy products in general?... The cow isn't hurt..."
This comment fits into my abhorrence of the idea of animals as machines quite well. It is my understanding that
in order for a cow to give milk, it must be impregnated. I have recently been told by an unreliable source that once
a cow is pregnant, she can be caused to give milk indefinitely without being repeatedly fertilized. I have heard the
direct opposite many times. Even if the single pregnancy theory is true, I know for a fact that factory farming systems
do not incorporate that into their daily structure. Rather, they use the fact that they CAN impregnate the cow
repeatedly to augment the veal industry (the horror of which hardly needs describing). We are not talking about Daisy
on the local farm here. We are talking about thousands of cows constantly milked and cyclically giving birth with no
chance to raise their calves, all in the name of cheap milk. Yes, the cow gets to live through it all, but that would be
the perfect argument for it all to end today. Yesterday.
I realize that those last six tidbits reduced the chance I would get any email at all about this in the future. Sometimes I'm
not so sure that this is a bad thing, but if you have any reponse within you bubbling below the surface, then send it
my way because
support is always appreciated and criticism will at least make me pause and consider...
{July 23, 2002}