What’s really hard about being a vegan
We have been raised to eat animals. It has become our norm. We eat them to celebrate birthdays and holidays, to mourn the loss of a loved one, watch sporting events, or just as an excuse to get together. We make meat the centerpiece of most meals. When the action of eating meat is repeated we become addicted to the taste. And because is so normal, it seems impossible to change this into something else, like being vegan.
Believe it or not, veganism is easy. It is simply about not consuming and exploiting animals. The key is to experiment with new products, new food, and new ways of eating. Before you know it, going vegan is effortless.
Simply change the thinking around the behavior, customs, and habits that we adopted as meat eaters. Try new recipes we haven’t tried before and vegan versions of our favorite foods. It becomes exciting and in most cases, we have a deeper appreciation and understanding of food and flavor than we ever did before!
This is not the difficult part of being vegan. By becoming vegan, you will start seeing the darker side of humanity. Your eyes will be opened as if you were blind to things going on around you before. You will begin to understand what we are doing to other living creatures on this planet and to ourselves.
Only then you realize that we still have to continue to believe and have hope.
It is almost impossible to understand why [otherwise] good people continue to participate in the needless violence against animals. When you become vegan you realize that eating meat, a norm at one time, was born of this violence. Also, the people you love and who have cared for you, also partook of this and accepted it as the norm.
When you find out the truth, you feel as though you have some new secret you need to tell the world. So you tell your friends, family, and acquaintances about veganism hoping they will understand . and they don’t. You have arguments with them and it starts to cause conflicts within the relationships you value most.
Some friends and family members will think you have gone crazy. They will think you are personally attacking them. And they don’t understand where you are coming from. You becoming isolated and then the people who cared about you mock and ridicule you for being “different”.
While it is enlightening to know the truth, it is also frustrating and maddening because it will make you realize how cruel our species can truly be. This conflict, however, can’t be a reason to shy away from what is right. After all, since the beginning of time, there have been individuals who have fought for justice in the midst of adversity. If you keep talking about your beliefs, sooner or later someone will listen. And they will, in turn, tell others. You will soon realize there are other vegans just like you out there and that you will be leading others to knowledge.
Remember, if you are right and you know it, you have to speak up. After all, the truth is still the truth. As one activist said, “The people that think veganism is hard are thinking about themselves. The people that think veganism is easy are thinking about the animals.”
Be patient. Be persistent. Tell others.
