I could leave that there. Park it as some say. I don't need to justify it to anyone, least of all myself, but I guess for others an explanation or a reasoning could prove interesting, not that I expect many (or any) to be on my wavelength. Especially not when the trend is to 'Go Vegan!' and be militant with it, or if not aggressive in voice and action to at least put your views across in a style normally associated with a rebellious age. What I mean by that is doing so without listening, without respect, without tolerance.
Maybe such an approach, my approach, will seem soft, too soft, to the newly 'converted'. And let it be known I dislike that word: converted, but I can think of no better when a seed has been sown from which, with time, a root takes shape. I just hope the seed hasn't been planted by an opinion movement and has instead grown from the individual's own thoughts and ideas.
I tread the line between a vegetarian and a vegan, and I'm a veteran of some years – almost a quarter of a century if you must know – yet I feel there's a divide between those persuaded long ago and those persuaded now.
Maybe when you're young at it, you're much more passionate or zealous, although I don't remember being as such. Mine was a quiet conviction and mine alone. It still is. Frankly, I'm often appalled by the outspoken behaviour of newcomers; so ashamed there have been moments I've felt like turning away from all I've known and practised.
Would I? Certainly not! But there's definitely a generational divide – not of age as in years but as in what year, what decade that choice was made. And by whom i.e. was it you? was it peer pressure? was it a jumping on the band-wagon thing? Or was it for a reason more compelling than that – an image, a news story, a personal shift due to something you witnessed, an experience or health scare?
I'm not about to defend my lifestyle (or eating) habits as I don't expect others, any others, to do the same, in front of or around me. There's no eggshells here. Nobody needs to be apologetic or feel awkward. Eat what you want to, don't what you don't. I'm not offended. I don't want to lecture you and I don't want you to ask me to justify.
I care about the welfare of animals, but I'm not an extremist. Nor do I think it's logical to believe that there's a utopia of vegetarianism or veganism out there, at least not one which humans intentionally bring about. En masse. Through their decisions. No, if that paradise appears (and it is by some seen as that) it will have been brought on, or should I say forced upon us. The option to consume fish and meat taken away because it's not environmentally sound in a depleted world.
Science develops ways around all the time, so I really can't imagine a future where 'meat' is not engineered in some form. Animals made, rather than born in the natural method. Cells used and modified. A world where meat is not on the menu is not a vision I share, or want. Which, yes, might seem hypocritical or a contradiction of the rules I live by. But I hate suppression, of any sort. Which includes (forcefully) telling someone else to do as I do.
People are going to eat meat. A minority or a majority. It doesn't matter. I'm not going to preach or make out I'm better than you – a better vegetarian or better for abstaining altogether. Mine is not 'this is the path to Heaven' attitude. Because that notion, borrowed from, I imagine, historical religious influences, is unhealthy and unreasonable. And provokes clashes, rather than (and ahead of) peaceful co-existence.
Why does any decision pertaining to lifestyle have to be wrong? Abhorrent, even?
What I am saddened by is ignorance. Wilful ignorance. The 'we don't want to know' brigade which for me is hard to write about because I have friends and family who fall into this category, and it's just not possible or worthwhile to 'have it out'. To what purpose anyway?
I will not pass judgement. I will not expect, nor try to enforce, a sea change because of the personal choices I've made, because of the views I hold.
Picture credit: Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather, 1881, Vincent van Gogh
All posts published this year were penned during the last.
