What made you decide to go Vegan? I've been asked this question many times, and it always gives me pause. I figured I'd try to answer it; for myself as much as for any who might wonder.
Once again, I must credit Cat as my inspiration to write this. She brought to my attention several historic figures who embraced vegetarianism in theory if not in practice. Some names on the list, quite frankly, shocked me.
Albert Einstein, Leonardo de Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and the list goes on. We're talking about some serious thinkers here. Why did they embrace vegetarianism? Let's ask Einstein.
"So I am living without fats, without meat, without fish, but am feeling quite well this way. It always seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore." -March 30, 1954
Pythagoras was slightly more blunt in his reasoning:
"As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." - attributed by Ovid
Some of them viewed the issue as a moral imperative, while others simply wondered if there was a better way. I tend to think more in terms of a better way. We all know that I'm not big on moral imperatives.
The question of right or wrong, to me, is irrelevant. Is it wrong to crush a rose blossom underneath your boot? Is it wrong to cage an animal? Is it wrong to kill a mockingbird?
The questions that I asked were not of right or wrong, but of my fundamental place in existence? Is it necessary for me to eat flesh? Am I a carnivore; a devourer? Is this how I wish to participate in the dance of life?
These are the questions I pose whenever I begin to doubt my experiment, and, though I never hear an answer, my appetite seems to fade away.
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