Becoming a steward of life.

     Today I read an interesting blog about "the spirituality of veganism" by Sarah Taylor at http://www.vegsource.com/     She feels that for whatever reason people become vegan,  eventually they notice the preciousness of life and they become stewards of life.  They find God through choice of diet...."we see it in the eyes of a cow, feel it when we pet a sheep, hear it in the peep of a baby chick.  And we know we have come home, to a place where love is at our core." 
     Ahimsa is an important tenet of Indian religions.  It means to do no harm to any living thing.  Reverence for life is at the center of Buddhism, as well.
     I haven't found God through diet, but I firmly believe in living a life of compassion. It feels right, it feels peaceful, and it does feel like coming home.  I am angered with and increasingly disappointed in people who explain away their complicity in cruelty by saying they like the taste of meat.  What could have caused that kind of a disconnect in their humanity?  Ignorance is no excuse;  possibly it is selfishness....not caring about animals, the planet, other people on the planet, or future generations, even their own future generations.  
     There is a documentary called "Earthlings" which can be viewed at http://www.earthlings.com/  I could only watch parts of it as the real-life violence is sickening.  It shows actual footage of factory farming, puppy mills, and the treatment of animals in this world.  It should be required viewing for all who eat animal products.  If people then still feel the need to eat animal products or dairy it gives us true measure of their character, or lack thereof. 
     18% of college students polled last year were vegetarians, as compared with 3.2% of the general population.  This does give me hope for the future of our planet.  Hopefully receiving a college education has the desired effect of teaching students to research facts and think for themselves, and then to act accordingly, whatever the reason:  health, environment, or compassionate treatment of animals.
     I haven't been able to view the new documentary "Forks over Knives" as of yet, but I was able to skim through the companion book.  There is a quote by Rip Esselstyn.  He feels that within ten years there will be a stigma attached to meat similar to the one against smoking today.  He thinks we are approaching a point close to where we were with tobacco back in the 1950s.  He even suggests having meat-eating and non-meat-eating sections in restaurants where the poor people in the meat-eating sections will look just as pitiful as the people in the smoking sections of public places today, smoking their brains out, looking unhealthy and unhappy.
     This tipping point cannot be reached too soon.


"All truth passes through three stages.  First, it is ridiculed.  Second, it is violently opposed.  Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."    Arthur Schopenhauer

"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music."  Angela Monet