You may recall that Caryn Hartglass had me on her radio show to talk about Bones & All and veganism a couple weeks back. If you listened to the segment, you heard me say—quite emphatically—that I believe eating animals is immoral.
As I spoke those words, I felt a little cosmic tug on my sleeve: You have to explain this. How can I assert that eating animals is immoral without implying that all the omnivores I know are immoral too?
I do think eating animals is wrong, yet I dearly love many people who do. My parents. My grandparents. Almost all of my family.
My friends: Seanan. Kelly B. Alex. Ailbhe and Christian. Shelley and James. Liv. Mackenzi. Elliot—one of my very favorite people in the world—celebrated his thirtieth birthday last weekend with a backyard pig roast. Dude ain’t going vegetarian anytime soon, but he’ll always be the brother I never had.
Am I silently judging my loved ones? Do I love them in spite of their diet? Do I tell them I love them while in my secret heart believing that I am a better person than they are? More evolved than they are?
Nope.
We just have to chalk this up to an irresolvable paradox. I claim the right to be able to say these two things to the same person:
You are one of the VERY best people I know.
AND
I hope that someday you will extend your love and compassion to all sentient creatures, not just our fellow humans.
I know it’s hard not to feel like I’m judging you when we talk about veganism. I know it can feel awkward when the conversation wanders toward my diet, philosophy, and worldview, and how it contrasts with yours. But please know that I don’t love you in spite of our differences; I just love you.
That’s the point of veganism, after all: unconditional love.
Beautifully said!
And I love you back!!!
Very sweet about Elliot. And you never know with people. My high school friends were fairly shocked when I went vegetarian because I would eat anything under the sun previously. Remember how I would taunt you with the steak? Anyway anyone can change. I’m still partially immoral but trying to reduce my dairy intake.
It’s SO TRUE. You and I both devoured those steak-and-baked-potato dinners on summer weekends. To see how we’ve grown and evolved, we have to take the long view—but we can extrapolate that more positive (and wonderfully unpredictable) change is pretty much guaranteed.
How I love being a work in progress. 😉