Deep Vegan Thoughts: Thanksgiving Edition
Hello.
Thanksgiving is coming up. I have been really wanting my family to not eat turkey.
(pics from the amazing documentary My Life as a Turkey. Watch online here)
I guess I am trying to feel like I’m making a difference and getting through to them.
I don’t feel like I am.
You know what though, tonight my 7 year old brother started talking about how cows were taken away from their moms in dairy farms.
I was like, “where did you learn that?” (I have not told him the details)
I asked him if he was vegan now? He told me he agreed with the vegan philosophy now but he still liked the taste of milk. He told me he won’t be eating meat any time soon. Though he told me we had to have turkey at thanksgiving cause tofurkey was not very good. But whatever, he’s thinking about it lol. I’ll let it work on him.
How adorable is that.
Supposedly the way to change people is to lead by example.
I guess the best thing to do instead of trying to guilt and force my family not to have turkey on Thanksgiving is maybe sponsor a turkey or give money to a sanctuary like The Pig Preserve. (one can donate on their Facebook page)
I really want to rescue a turkey though.
Do you guys ever get annoyed by Thanksgiving?
I have been thinking about Thanksgiving. It represents giving thanks, feeling grateful, peace, community, all those things.
Yet it is almost a farce.
A dead enslaved murdered animal is on the table while we talk about all the great stuff in our lives.
I don’t like that.
Turkeys should be free.
When I tell people about what veganism is now I feel I have a much better grasp on what it is.
It’s a philosophy. It promotes the ideals of freedom, justice, equal rights.
It’s really such a beautiful philosophy and ideal.
I never cared much about liberty and justice for all till I started learning about veganism.
I definitely agreed there should be liberty and justice for all, but I never truly cared. It was never personal.
Even in school when I was studying philosophy and I was reading thousands of pages of discussions about virtue and justice and what not, it never meant much to me. I was like, what’s the big deal–yeah yeah justice, moving on.
my college (st. john’s college-the great books school)
But Veganism makes these values a big part of my life. Just the thought of what I have seen done to animals, and how horrific their treatment is…makes me care about justice.
I think about pigs screaming.
And I care.
Yeah I guess I never was one to want to change the world. I was not very idealistic.
But now I believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all beings.
(I also believe in love).
Never thought that veganism would make me better like that.
Having seen what I have seen now, in a way, the world makes more sense.
When I first read about the Holocaust, I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that this had happened only 50 years ago. It didn’t make sense that people could let something so evil happen.
Now I see that that same kind of thing is happening right now to animals. We’re just blind to it.
This kind of thing is a part of life and a part of human nature.
We are so easily convinced that certain lives are worth less than others.
This is so clear to me now that I feel proud and like I am a light for others. I hope I inspire people by telling them humbly what veganism is all about to see the truth.
It reminds me of the story of Plato’s Cave. Do you know it?
Basically, these people are chained in a cave, watching shadow theater on the wall. They think the shadows are all there is to life and they are really happy in the cave cause that’s all they’ve ever known. But one guy breaks free from his chains and crawls toward the light outside. At first the light blinds him and he’s like WTF. Then he sees real life and he’s like, “My life is a lie” and he goes back to the cave to tell the other people about the world outside the cave, but the people in the cave are like “Go away. You’re crazy”. He has to drag people or guide people to the light, kicking and screaming.
The philosopher’s job is to guide people out of the cave even though they won’t want to see the light at first.
People don’t want to see the truth of what’s happening to animals. I definitely didn’t. I avoided learning about veganism for decades because I didn’t want to give up cheese.
But now I’m a philosopher so it’s ok.
Don’t hate people for living in the cave.
Don’t hate people for eating turkey on thanksgiving, I guess? What do you think.
Question: How do you deal with Thanksgiving?
Also, there’s a lot of cool vegan shoes on my vegan shoes pinterest board in case you need non leather footwear.
I’ve found that Thanksgiving seems to be more about food than being thankful for what we have in our lives. My mom slaves in the kitchen for, sometimes, multiple days to get this food ready that people inhale in 30 minutes then stay around just long enough to get pie and leave. I think this holiday has become a little ridiculous-and now adding shopping on top of it!! WTF?! My husband and I are both vegan. We know that we can’t rely on our family to change so we bring our own food. I never expect any one to cook for me. So we get the change going by having people see that we chose to eat differently
That is cool you bring all your own food. I think I will do that too. Yeah I guess that is all we can do–just inspire people by eating differently. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!
I used to be able to sit at a table with a dead bird on it, but I can’t anymore. It bothers me too much. My vegan mom lives far away but I have local vegan friends and we usually have a vegan potluck at Thanksgiving. I’m thankful for the vegans in my life! I think your brother’s mind is opening–and at such a young age! So sweet :) I learned about Plato’s cave in college but forgot about it. It totally applied to veganism! Thanks are changing.
Thanks Jean! That is awesome that you have created your own vegan thanksgiving. Who went vegan first, you or your mom? Did one inspire the other? I wish my fam would get it already! (in my dreams).
I really like this post and LOVE the Plato’s Cave story. I had dabbled with vegetarianism several times in the past but went back to the American standard eating habits and indulging in animal cruelty clothing and accessories. FINALLY, after extensive research and learning the truth about animal cruelty, I completely changed to a Vegan lifestyle and revamped my kitchen panty, fridge, eating habits and body/face products. Now I have moved on to changing my entire wardrobe to becoming animal free. My 3 grown son’s came over for Thanksgiving and enjoyed their Vegan Lasagna and Vegan Apple Pie, and they happily took home the left overs. I am grateful for their support and believe that the people close to me will open to Veganism over time, if I continue lead by example.
Elena, thank you for sharing your story and comments! Just reading about the changes you have made from this comment is so clearly inspiring that I know you WILL inspire others leading by example. xoxoxoxo
Oh my gosh. I swear you are my new girl crush! I was a vegan for almost a year and then fell off the wagon…HARD. I have been a fat carnivore ever since. Recently, I watched Vegucated and it reminded me off all the reasons I went vegan the first time. After I started eating meat again I re-clouded my eyes and forced myself to forget what I had learned. I still took the pro-animal stance in debates with people but I haven’t been living it. I have been pondering ways to reintroduce myself to a vegan lifestyle (including cruelty-free beauty products, which I had never even thought about before) and this post has made that pondering much easier. I have a bit of fridge cleaning to do (and I’m 100% right now so I basically have to eat what I’ve got in the cupboards until payday) and bit of makeup sorting but I’m starting to get excited. I’m not sure whether I’ll start vegetarian and limit my dairy before cutting out dairy altogether or just go cold turkey (does that saying have a brutal backstory? It seems like it would) but I think I’ve definitely got to make a change. I felt better the year that I was a vegan than I ever have in my life. And the best part is, once I started, it really wasn’t that hard. It just felt natural and I had so much energy. I loved it but once I fell off the wagon it seemed almost impossible to get back on. Sorry for that freakishly long message. I just wanted to let you know that you made a difference in my dreadful Monday.
PS. Your summary of Plato’s closet was the best I have ever heard (and funny too!)
xx Andrea
: DDD thank you Andrea!!!! Loved the comment.This really makes me so happy to know you liked it and thought it was funny. Thank you for letting me know. As for falling off the wagon…I have no idea why it is so hard to get back on the wagon once you fall off, but I totally agree. For me trying to be raw vegan, I have found it almost impossible to get back on the wagon and go 100% raw again. I have heard from other people it’s the same for them. Like they think they’ll just have one cheat day and then they barely recover by the skin of their teeth. I know you will get there though eventually if you keep trying. Doesn’t matter how long it takes. xoxoxoxo Victoria
[…] are the philosophers (like in plato’s cave (see last post?). They show people the light. They harass their friends late at night with annoying GO VEGANNNN […]