I’ve been thinking a lot today about being vegan. The word vegan means so many different things to so many different people. I’ve been trying to actually define and give it a clear meaning for myself. I’ve decided that not eating meat or animal products really isn’t abut the animals, I mean it is of course, but not the way people perceive it to be. Its not that I think dogs and cats are cute and cuddly, or that I’m repulsed by the knowledge of what I’m eating. When I sit down to eat I simply ask myself is what I’m about to eat worth the suffering and torture of another living thing? (I apologize in advance to the person this references, but you’ve made me think quite a bit about quite a lot) Lets say for example I am faced with a choice between two similar products, one is made with milk and one is not. Lets say the one with milk may taste a little better, (and that’s only because I’ve been raised on it) but the other is edible, and healthier for me. This is what being vegan means to me. Simply making choices that reflect my beliefs/morals/ethics. I know that by not eating animals I’m not exactly saving them. This is what I mean when I said being vegan isn’t about the animals. To me its about changing what I find pleasure in, such as things that do not contribute to suffering. But suffering isn’t even the right word, even if an animal wasn’t tormented before having its life taken I find it extremely disturbing that we as humans feel we have the right to give something life only to take it away. Isn’t this what religious people would call “playing God”? I do not find pleasure in this and I doubt many of you do. Yet most people don’t make the connection that eating meat, cheese, or eggs is merely for pleasure and we have no nutritional requirement for any of these “animal products.” We are all faced with many choices every day, but we don’t always have available to us the thing we would choose. For example, when I’m sick I don’t always have the resources available to me to choose between a product that was tested on animals and one that was not. I may even have to choose a medication with an animal bi-product in it. I don’t feel this would make me not vegan. What makes me vegan is the ability, no the want, (we all have the ability) to choose the non-animal option when there is one available to me. Its not that I cant have something (meat, cheese) it’s that I choose not to, and that’s an important distinction for people to recognize. I am not perfect, and I don’t try to be. I just try to do the best I can when I can and I hope you all luck in doing the same.
{Thursday, November 29, 2007} My veganism (somewhat) defined
hey Megan! good post, you explained it well. i know from growing up in a super-conservative highly religious family, that their basic views are quite different. i remember talking about some religions not eating meat on certain days and the church (my parent’s, not mine – then or now or ever) was definitely opinionated on it. they pointed to a passage in first Timothy that states “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”
so from their view, the animals people eat were put here as gifts from God. for me, i respect that belief but don’t have to adopt it as my own. was weird, when i went thru IL in october and stopped for a family dinner, mom made a huge meal w/ a roast and invited everyone. when my sister told her i wasn’t eating meat, she just said she wished i would’ve told her, she wouldn’t have had to go to as much trouble. i hadn’t said anything b/c i figured i’d get some hippie-snide remark. have to say, i was impressed w/ at least a slight bit of being ok w/ my decisions even if they don’t coincide w/ theirs.
btw, are there some places forbidding marriage – or could that be just for gays and lesbians?