Well, today was a very good day for me. In terms of learning experiences and self discovery, today was one of the best days I've had in a long time. Someone that I met online directed me to a video on You Tube that was a real eye opener for me. Some of you may have already seen it. It was difficult to watch the entire thing because of the disturbing nature of its content. At the end of the movie, I felt ill. Not just physically ill, but emotionally ill as well. I realized that something I had neglected to face was finally in my presence and I couldn’t run from it anymore.
As a human being and an inhabitant of the planet earth, I have a greater sense of reason and awareness than any other life form on this planet. That puts me and all of those who are like me in a position of great responsibility. It is up to us to care for and assist all the living creatures of this planet. It is our job to ensure their wellbeing and to protect them and do the best we can to give them a peaceful existence. In comparison to the simple life forms that exist on our planet, we are like living gods. Because of our self awareness and abilities to reason and comprehend pain and suffering, love and harmony, balance and instability, we have power over all things here. The life forms that exist around us rely on us to treat them as we would expect a living god to treat us. If you’ve ever believed in a higher power, then perhaps you already know what it’s like to want to reach out to something greater than us for help and guidance. We are in a position to give that to life forms that exist on this planet and any other planet that we explore or inhabit in the future.
Today I realized that becoming a vegetarian was no longer a choice of convenience, it is a choice to love. I choose to no longer support the barbaric practices that seek to support the harvest and torture of living creatures. There is so much suffering in this world, my choice will have little to no impact, but I believe in the future more humans will reach an enlightened state in which we all choose compassion over selfish desires, even our own selfish desire to survive. I realized today that the vegetarian life style is way ahead of its time. It’s composed of a minority of people who have the courage to stand up against those who are void of compassion and have the courage to accept their responsibility to protect the simpler life forms that we rule over. I find a fitting relation to those who have stood against human tyranny in our human history. Like the people who fought with their lives to abolish human slavery. We have much to learn as humans. We have so much power and so little wisdom to contain it.
If you’re interested in watching the video that I’m referring to, you can see it here:
Earthlings Part 1
Earthlings Part 2
1 comment:
Excellent blog, Andrew, thank you for sharing. I know where you're coming from--I saw Earthlings and Meet Your Meat 3 years ago at a presentation and quit eating meat right5 then. I had been incorporating vegan foods into my diet for quite awhile but just couldn't give up the meat until I watched these videos. I'm vegetarian now and working towards vegan. I hope to be an example to others and to always be aware of the many ways we as humans can be so cruel without thinking about it.
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