I promised I would tell you more about The Midwest Animal Advocacy Conference at the University of Minnesota that took place from June 6th-8th. It’s time to make good on that promise.
I’d like to talk a little bit more about some of the things Colleen Patrick-Goudreau discussed in her “Being a Joyful Vegan” speech, and it’s especially relevant to me at the moment because someone recently asked me if I would compromise what I eat in order to be polite. Specifically, let’s say I’m at a wedding: would I eat what the couple served to avoid being an inconvenience? I didn’t even have to think about the answer: no. Does that mean I’m going to throw a big fit about it? No. I would just quietly excuse myself and find something more suitable to eat and/or plan ahead and bring something with me that I could eat. I don’t really care if people notice or if they think it’s rude. This brings me to what Colleen said (I’m paraphrasing here): “Don’t apologize for your values just to avoid making someone else uncomfortable. How people react to your values isn’t your problem, and someone else’s comfort level isn’t more important than your principles.” Sooooo true.
All I can control are my own actions, and the way I choose to live my life. I cannot control how others react to my choices. Living in a constant state of worry over how someone will perceive me or feel about my choices – my choices that don’t hurt anyone, to be exact – doesn’t seem like a very healthy way to go about life. I admit that I do sometimes worry about people having to accommodate me, and I try not to be a total pain in the butt, but at the same time, I know that I would sooner inconvenience other people than compromise my values.
Bottom line: stick to your guns! As Colleen said: There are no neutral actions. Kind of scary, isn’t it? Scary, but also incredibly powerful if you just stop and think about that for a minute.
Ya wanna know what’s even scarier? There are no neutral inactions either!
“You can’t be neutral on a moving train,” says Howard Zinn.
We make our choice to be vegan. Most omnivores don’t make a conscious decision to be omnivores – they always have been, it’s all they know, many don’t even realize it’s something they can question. But that doesn’t make their omnivoreness neutral. To participate in institutionalized cruelty and exploitation is not neutral.
So, just look at it as everyone’s inaction is inconveniencing your action and vice versa. Neither is neutral. Yours is moving in a forward positive direction and theirs is standing still – it’s running backward on the train, thus it appears neutral from the detached viewers perspective …
I swear I’m not high right now.
Damn, I didn’t even go to the conference and I’m inspired by it. Nice post and nice comment by Al. I completely agree – there are no neutral inactions.
So, if you’re interested in spreading some joyful veganism today, please read my latest blog post and head over to NPR’s Marketplace and leave a comment. Seems most of the ones I read were pretty negative on the subject of factory farming being at the root of the current food shortage. I swear at least one of those commenters is my Dad, whose mantra at 73 years old is “I don’t want to change, I want things to stay the same.”
Gah!
s.
I LOVED that speech. If you liked it (and it sounds like you did!), I *highly* recommend Colleen’s podcast, “Vegetarian Food for Thought.” It’s free on iTunes, and I cannot even begin to tell you how inspirational & educational I have found it to be! (I know I mentioned this to you at the conference, but I thought I’d pimp it again since it’s so awesome.)
I loved how she said that you can’t choose whether or not your choices make a difference; you only have control over whether that difference is positive or negative. I have never thought about that before (at least not quite in those terms), and was really awed by that idea.