I am an on again of again vegetarian and vegan. (see last post. BORING!! Yet somehow I've been pretty committed to the skipping off the plan rather than sticking).
....and to continue... It's hard to
justify the ‘off again’ status. A family that doesn’t understand. Not enough
attention to getting the right nutrients meaning my health suffers a bit at
times. Both poor excuses. Yet I recite them to myself too often.
Every time I slip back into eating animal products, reality
slaps me in the face. Recent example: I have just finished reading the latest
Quarterly Essay – an amazing 25000 word (or so) journal published every 3
months (duh!) and written by an Australian on a topic of personal importance.
The current topic: “Us and Them: on the importance of animals”
is beautifully explored by Anna Krien. She eats animal products I understand.
Her essay is heart breakingly compassionate and delves into the befuddlement of
our relationship with other animals and, as an aside, ‘other’ people. Mass
market meat from a resource rich (and generally just rich) country consumed by our
neighbours; hunting predators to protect sources of meat and income; meddling
with the balance between species to make ‘nature’ safer for us; the human benefits
and general travesty of animal testing; our wilful ignorance when it comes to
understanding the pain ‘animals’ experience (note: this includes pain experienced
by American slaves and indigenous Australians….’cause ‘once upon a time’ we
thought them not human) All I know are wrong
and uncomfortable and all I know I support by just being here. I can lighten
the load by my choices…… but not much. Our
society is based on an understanding that the life of a non-human animal is
worth so little in any terms but economic. %$#@# (aka this makes me irreconcilably
angry).
I find comfort in chipping away.
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