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.

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.