Look, I know new vegans have a tendency to be annoying, it's the curse of the newly converted. I've been that person many a time. So I'm trying to figure the balance between being annoying and being informative. Didactic vs preachy.
There's a lot of discussion among vegans about "speaking your truth" which looks very much like the discussion among evangelicals about evangelizing. The arguments behind each are very similar. New evangelicals are taught (in churches that do that sort of thing) that sharing your faith (sharing the Gospel) is a way to love people. New vegans are informed that sharing your faith is a way to speak for those who have no voice -- and a way to speak TO those who may not know the truth about how animals are made into food here.
There's a lot of discussion among vegans about "speaking your truth" which looks very much like the discussion among evangelicals about evangelizing. The arguments behind each are very similar. New evangelicals are taught (in churches that do that sort of thing) that sharing your faith (sharing the Gospel) is a way to love people. New vegans are informed that sharing your faith is a way to speak for those who have no voice -- and a way to speak TO those who may not know the truth about how animals are made into food here.
But our feelings about food can be as fraught and personal as our feelings about God. It's a dangerous place to tread. The most success I can hope for as a follower of Christ is to live like I think I'm meant to, and that people will attribute that to my faith. I guess the parallel is that the most success I can hope for as someone who refuses to participate in the destructive system that makes food from animals is that someone who thinks it is too difficult will see that it's not that difficult.
I thought I would be merrily writing essays and long posts about turkeys and B-12 and seitan, and I still might. But the truth is that the information is already out there. I found it...fairly easily. I don't need to duplicate it here. I can tell my own story, how I've never really liked zoos (a revelation that came to me back in the day -- LONG AGO -- when I used to use a lot of LSD), or how when I was a manager of the tiny meat department in a health food store, Thanksgiving nearly broke me (the breasts...the breasts...the horror...they're so unnaturally huge!). I didn't know I was so tenderhearted about animals, but I was. I never really felt anything but disdain for teenage girl vegans (who they always are, in my mind) who did it "for the animals."
And now I can act like I'm doing it for lots of reasons, because there are sooooo many. But the truth is I'm doing it for the animals. I saw a video of a cute baby goat frolicking and it broke me the rest of the way.
So all that's to say, I'm not going to hector. If anyone wants to know anything about my choice or how it plays out in everyday life, I will be happy to answer. Otherwise, I'm going to try to move on.
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