To Feel is to Act

I started reading Diet for a New America last weekend, a book that has been described as putting forth one of the strongest arguments for adopting a vegetarian diet published to date. As you all know I'm not someone who needs to be convinced of the benefits of vegetarianism - I'm living them everyday. The book for me is simply reinforcing everything that I've already come to believe and accept about eliminating animal and animal products from my diet (and my life as a whole). John Robbins hit it exactly when he writes, "...a great majority of meat-eaters who switch to a vegetarian diet-style actually report more energy, greater vitality, new feelings of lightness and ease in their bodies, and increased well-being." Picture emphatic head-nodding from me. That's it. That's exactly how I feel.

So I went to this book with an openess that others might not; what I ended up finding surprised me. I sometimes feel that my need to express what I'm feeling about being vegetarian will come off as a bid to convince my listeners to go veg or as a judgement of their choices. Beyond the need to express my thoughts and feelings though is the desire to connect with someone who has already gone through the process; someone who has experienced the same changes in their diets, thoughts and feelings that I have. I found that to a certain degree in Diet for a New America. Granted the book is difficult too read. I needed to take a break after reading the first few chapters describing the treatment of animals, with many breaks in between! I'd heard much of it before but it always seems that there are yet worse things to learn. What I read stayed with me as the week went on (and stays with me still) . Thursday night, after the squid ink in the gum incident, I broke down. Everything just hit me and I just started sobbing. Now one might say that I can't let it get to me like it does but that's impossible. I've opened my eyes and my heart to it and I can no longer deny it. Denying it would go against everything that I've come to believe about the world and my place in it. I finally picked up the book again the other night and like a sign from above, I caught one sentence, "Our power does not lie in looking the other way." I went to the beginning of the paragraph and read,

Our pain is not something to fear, for in the heart of our grief we can find our connection to each other, and our power to act. Our power lies in our connection to all life. Our power lies in our deepest human responses. Our power does not lie in looking the other way.

What I'm trying to do is not look the other way...to make more informed choices on everything from food to makeup. This of course cannot take place overnight - but every little bit counts.