Now that i'm substitute teaching full time, we have time to do projects around the house again and actually live mindfully again, instead of stumbling through each day like a sleep-deprived zombie. Our big project at the moment is organizing/decluttering our whole house. It sounds like a chore, but really it's not too bad. One of the side benefits of moving all the time is that you don't get a chance to accumulate too much stuff. We are just going through everything drawer-by-drawer and area-by-area and getting rid of stuff that we don't love/need/use. i'm really thinning out the kids' toys. Our house is so much easier to keep clean when there aren't 100000 little pieces of plastic laying around everywhere. My goal is to have all the counter space free of stuff that isn't used daily, as well as not having a junk drawer in every room. I want to reorganize our garage, too. Its scary in there. Since we will be moving sometime in the next 6 months, I want to only move things that we really need or want. Especially since the place will be smaller. Its nice to go back to basics, in a lot of ways, and be forced to do that by moving into a smaller space. It makes you consider each item and if its really valuable.
I've been reading several blogs about living without plastics. One of them is Living Plastic Free Although I don't think we could live TOTALLY plastic-free, i think we could cut it back by A LOT. Things like a loaf of bread, which now costs $4.39 (!?!) are bagged in TWO layers of plastic. Now that jay has the stay-at-home dad thing down, I am hoping we can get back into making our own bread. Its pretty easy, and its fun to do with kids. I think with just a few changes, we can get back to making less garbage. We've been somewhat reliant on disposable items such as diapers and food from Trader Joe's lately. But we shouldn't be at this point. The amount of garbage we've started to produce is just sad. Considering that we were down to like 1 bag of garbage a month. We make that amount each week now : ( So I would like our second goal of the New Year to be cutting back on all plastic, and especially cutting way back on stuff that can't be recycled.
Last weekend I took our worm bin and pulled some worms out and started a second worm bin. They are a little sluggish--i'm assuming because its cold out--and aren't eating a lot. But if we do move, its likely that we wont be able to have an outdoor compost bin. So i want to have two worm bins to take care of the kitchen scraps at least.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
hayyy laaaadies!
just a short post to let all the women out there know about the best thing ever. why this is such a big secret, i'm not sure. but if you are interested in reducing/preventing waste AND not having...um...leaking issues during your period, you must go buy a diva cup or moon cup. it took me a while to get used to it, but now that i am, i LOVE it. it's expensive at first, but consider that you can use it for years.
http://www.divacup.com/
or
http://www.mooncup.co.uk/
just get one. i've heard that the mooncup can be more comfortable. i already got the diva though, so i'm committed to making it work. its just one more way to not buy disposable products. and i HATE wearing pads, cloth or disposable, so this is the only non-disposable alternative to that.
http://www.divacup.com/
or
http://www.mooncup.co.uk/
just get one. i've heard that the mooncup can be more comfortable. i already got the diva though, so i'm committed to making it work. its just one more way to not buy disposable products. and i HATE wearing pads, cloth or disposable, so this is the only non-disposable alternative to that.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
merry post-holiday greeting
happy new year everyone...
This post will serve as the substitute for the more traditional letter-in-a-christmas-card that informs everyone about what they have been doing. we have not gotten our act together to do anything for the holidays in terms of cards, baking, gifts, etc. I had big plans to bake stuff to mail to the far-away relatives, and never did get a chance to. We did give a few books this year, and i bought people some things in ireland (more on that in a moment).
we were really pretty pleased/impressed with how restrained our families were this holiday season. most presents were hand-me-downs or used, which was awesome. there was a minimum of wrapping paper, most of which was recycled, and the stuff for us adults was very small. still, it can be a bit overwhelming to consider that this (photo below) is what counts for trying for a very minimalist christmas. our entire couch was covered in presents for the kids.
we continue to be pretty non-committal about any gift-giving. we just aren't into it, and kind of refuse to feel like we should buy things for people and get all stressed about it. when the kids are older, i suspect that we will make some things, but right now that idea seems kind of ludicrous since we don't even get time to do dishes.
as for how things are going, the kids are doing well. as you can see, emmett is huge and has become an official toddler. he's 13 months old now. he runs around after elsie now and we've seen brief moments (of up to 10 minutes!) of them playing together and entertaining each other, whilst leaving us alone. hopefully it's a taste of things to come in the future. he also loves to eat everything and does a lot of babbling and playing with all sorts of objects. he understands what we say now and can follow simple commands such as 'hand me that ball'. he is much more eager to please, sensitive and compliant than elsie ever was. he will cry if we tell him 'no', whereas elsie never cared if we told her not to do something (and still doesn't!) elsie is growing bigger by the minute, and will be four in 2 months. she has started sounding out words, and can write her name and several other words. she loves to read still, and proudly announces that she now reads "chapter books" which she requests constantly. her vocabulary amazes us on a daily basis, saying things like "i have this memorized" and "is this a sand-hill crane, mama?" (today, she brought me a picture she found of a crane. where she heard about sand hill cranes, i have no idea). we've kept to our TV free lifestyle but do allow her to watch movies which we get from the library or video store. emmett hasn't watched any movies or tv.
elsie loves spending time down at her grandparents' house and we send her down there as often as we can. her behavior has gotten easier recently, and we've noticed that we aren't feeling like ripping our hair out quite as many times per day. the terrible threes are hopefully coming to a close.
my job as a teacher ended just before christmas, which is at once a relief, something sad, and something stressful. i really felt like i came into my own as a teacher toward the end, and i was sad to have to leave the job after hitting my stride. i was really enjoying my students. they were really sweet on my last day, many of them getting me christmas presents, cards, and flowers telling me that they will miss me and that they wanted me to stay. there were a few tears shed and i had a couple of students tell me wonderful things such as i was the best teacher they ever had (sniff). it was sad to realize i wasn't going to see them any more. it feels good to know that i really picked the right career and i learned a lot during these past months. i am excited to get a 'real' teaching job for next year or the year after.
at the same time, the job was taking a lot out of me, and it was very hard to keep up with.
jay has been doing some work here and there for his friend david, who just started a cultural resources company (david was the one who also got fired along with jay and 2 other people from AINW in august). in combination with substitute teaching for me, we are hopeful that we can make it through the next 6 months financially with both of us working very flexibly. it will be kind of nice to switch off working/staying at home on an as-needed basis. we have talked about moving to salem and renting a cheap apartment, while i sub there, but we are going to hold off in the hopes that jay will land a full time job in the next few months and then see if moving is necessary. the idea of moving is almost more than i can deal with. i'm just so sick of moving. but our place is kind of expensive and it would be nice to save some money. however, if jay does end up getting a job, it would be silly to move to salem and then to move back. we have some reason to hope that david will have a full time position for him in the next 6 months. i'm hoping that he can work and i can work part time, as i'd rather not jump into full time teaching next year unless i have to. i'd rather wait until emmett is 3 to tackle that. still, if jay doesn't have a job, we'll have no choice. subbing is OK money, but we might have problems when summer comes if jay doesn't have a job. we are trying not to stress about it too much. sometimes it just feels like we can't take any more changes and adjustments, though. nothing has been stable since August.
In other news, i just got back from an 7 day trip to ireland, which was absolutely amazing. My good friend roy got married to a wonderful irish woman, which was the reason for the trip. it was amazing and crazy to be by myself with no kids for so long, and offered me an unprecedented chance to think and take care of my own needs for a change. the kids and jay weathered it fairly well with lots of support from my family. i decided while over there that our family should not postpone happiness for some time in the future, when things might go a certain way; that we have each other, and in that regard we are very lucky and blessed. we are all working on focusing on the positive for now and realizing that everything is temporary. i felt very grateful and very, very fortunate to get to go on this trip and to be with my friends during this time.
the wedding feast in longford, ireland
roy and i at trinity college, dublin.
at some point i will post pictures of the kids and everything, but right now i don't think i can take any more elsie harassment about 'when will you be done?!?'
just one final thought: during these past few months it has become apparent to me that it is entirely impossible for people who are in a crisis to think about the environment, or anything beyond just their day-to-day survival. a lot of things fell by the wayside as we contemplated more important things, for example: are we were going to have to move in with my parents? how we were going to get health insurance? how we could afford to heat our house? etc. people all over the world, and in america, are in crisis and are just trying to survive. many, many millions of americans are only one paycheck or medical problem away from disaster. how can people think about their choices affecting the earth when they are just surviving? i know we didn't. we went back to whatever was cheapest/easiest, which always means less organics, more trash, less mindful consuming, etc. it's a pity, but its hard to imagine anything changing in a meaningful way while so many people are in poverty. its obvious that global poverty and environmental catastrophe are linked, and our family now understands the reasons for this first-hand.
here are a few pictures to appease the masses. thanks for reading this long ramble.
This post will serve as the substitute for the more traditional letter-in-a-christmas-card that informs everyone about what they have been doing. we have not gotten our act together to do anything for the holidays in terms of cards, baking, gifts, etc. I had big plans to bake stuff to mail to the far-away relatives, and never did get a chance to. We did give a few books this year, and i bought people some things in ireland (more on that in a moment).
we were really pretty pleased/impressed with how restrained our families were this holiday season. most presents were hand-me-downs or used, which was awesome. there was a minimum of wrapping paper, most of which was recycled, and the stuff for us adults was very small. still, it can be a bit overwhelming to consider that this (photo below) is what counts for trying for a very minimalist christmas. our entire couch was covered in presents for the kids.
we continue to be pretty non-committal about any gift-giving. we just aren't into it, and kind of refuse to feel like we should buy things for people and get all stressed about it. when the kids are older, i suspect that we will make some things, but right now that idea seems kind of ludicrous since we don't even get time to do dishes.
as for how things are going, the kids are doing well. as you can see, emmett is huge and has become an official toddler. he's 13 months old now. he runs around after elsie now and we've seen brief moments (of up to 10 minutes!) of them playing together and entertaining each other, whilst leaving us alone. hopefully it's a taste of things to come in the future. he also loves to eat everything and does a lot of babbling and playing with all sorts of objects. he understands what we say now and can follow simple commands such as 'hand me that ball'. he is much more eager to please, sensitive and compliant than elsie ever was. he will cry if we tell him 'no', whereas elsie never cared if we told her not to do something (and still doesn't!) elsie is growing bigger by the minute, and will be four in 2 months. she has started sounding out words, and can write her name and several other words. she loves to read still, and proudly announces that she now reads "chapter books" which she requests constantly. her vocabulary amazes us on a daily basis, saying things like "i have this memorized" and "is this a sand-hill crane, mama?" (today, she brought me a picture she found of a crane. where she heard about sand hill cranes, i have no idea). we've kept to our TV free lifestyle but do allow her to watch movies which we get from the library or video store. emmett hasn't watched any movies or tv.
elsie loves spending time down at her grandparents' house and we send her down there as often as we can. her behavior has gotten easier recently, and we've noticed that we aren't feeling like ripping our hair out quite as many times per day. the terrible threes are hopefully coming to a close.
my job as a teacher ended just before christmas, which is at once a relief, something sad, and something stressful. i really felt like i came into my own as a teacher toward the end, and i was sad to have to leave the job after hitting my stride. i was really enjoying my students. they were really sweet on my last day, many of them getting me christmas presents, cards, and flowers telling me that they will miss me and that they wanted me to stay. there were a few tears shed and i had a couple of students tell me wonderful things such as i was the best teacher they ever had (sniff). it was sad to realize i wasn't going to see them any more. it feels good to know that i really picked the right career and i learned a lot during these past months. i am excited to get a 'real' teaching job for next year or the year after.
at the same time, the job was taking a lot out of me, and it was very hard to keep up with.
jay has been doing some work here and there for his friend david, who just started a cultural resources company (david was the one who also got fired along with jay and 2 other people from AINW in august). in combination with substitute teaching for me, we are hopeful that we can make it through the next 6 months financially with both of us working very flexibly. it will be kind of nice to switch off working/staying at home on an as-needed basis. we have talked about moving to salem and renting a cheap apartment, while i sub there, but we are going to hold off in the hopes that jay will land a full time job in the next few months and then see if moving is necessary. the idea of moving is almost more than i can deal with. i'm just so sick of moving. but our place is kind of expensive and it would be nice to save some money. however, if jay does end up getting a job, it would be silly to move to salem and then to move back. we have some reason to hope that david will have a full time position for him in the next 6 months. i'm hoping that he can work and i can work part time, as i'd rather not jump into full time teaching next year unless i have to. i'd rather wait until emmett is 3 to tackle that. still, if jay doesn't have a job, we'll have no choice. subbing is OK money, but we might have problems when summer comes if jay doesn't have a job. we are trying not to stress about it too much. sometimes it just feels like we can't take any more changes and adjustments, though. nothing has been stable since August.
In other news, i just got back from an 7 day trip to ireland, which was absolutely amazing. My good friend roy got married to a wonderful irish woman, which was the reason for the trip. it was amazing and crazy to be by myself with no kids for so long, and offered me an unprecedented chance to think and take care of my own needs for a change. the kids and jay weathered it fairly well with lots of support from my family. i decided while over there that our family should not postpone happiness for some time in the future, when things might go a certain way; that we have each other, and in that regard we are very lucky and blessed. we are all working on focusing on the positive for now and realizing that everything is temporary. i felt very grateful and very, very fortunate to get to go on this trip and to be with my friends during this time.
the wedding feast in longford, ireland
roy and i at trinity college, dublin.
at some point i will post pictures of the kids and everything, but right now i don't think i can take any more elsie harassment about 'when will you be done?!?'
just one final thought: during these past few months it has become apparent to me that it is entirely impossible for people who are in a crisis to think about the environment, or anything beyond just their day-to-day survival. a lot of things fell by the wayside as we contemplated more important things, for example: are we were going to have to move in with my parents? how we were going to get health insurance? how we could afford to heat our house? etc. people all over the world, and in america, are in crisis and are just trying to survive. many, many millions of americans are only one paycheck or medical problem away from disaster. how can people think about their choices affecting the earth when they are just surviving? i know we didn't. we went back to whatever was cheapest/easiest, which always means less organics, more trash, less mindful consuming, etc. it's a pity, but its hard to imagine anything changing in a meaningful way while so many people are in poverty. its obvious that global poverty and environmental catastrophe are linked, and our family now understands the reasons for this first-hand.
here are a few pictures to appease the masses. thanks for reading this long ramble.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
so...um...
jay lost his other, newer job...
we're not sure if its because of the kids or what, but it would seem that way. the guy wouldn't give a reason. he just said "its not a good fit." after only 2 months. this would be the day after jay had to leave work early to pick emmett up from daycare because emmett was sick. jay wasn't willing to work unpaid overtime. he wasn't willing to go out of town on a moment's notice. he left work every day after 8 hours to get his kids. he wasn't willing to be a corporate zombie slave.
the sad thing is i think this happens to a lot of people. people get fired because they have small kids, get pregnant, have a sick spouse, etc. and there isn't jack crap you can do about it because you live in a "will-to-work" state. meaning, you can be fired at any time, for any reason (for no reason, actually).
so the tables have turned. he is a stay-at-home dad and i'm making the money. its sure going to suck come january when i'm no longer doing this job, and i just substitute teach, and our family has no benefits. yup. sure will suck.
everything else has been so out the window these past 3 months. its been beyond stressful.
"when you look into an abyss, the
abyss also looks into you."
we're not sure if its because of the kids or what, but it would seem that way. the guy wouldn't give a reason. he just said "its not a good fit." after only 2 months. this would be the day after jay had to leave work early to pick emmett up from daycare because emmett was sick. jay wasn't willing to work unpaid overtime. he wasn't willing to go out of town on a moment's notice. he left work every day after 8 hours to get his kids. he wasn't willing to be a corporate zombie slave.
the sad thing is i think this happens to a lot of people. people get fired because they have small kids, get pregnant, have a sick spouse, etc. and there isn't jack crap you can do about it because you live in a "will-to-work" state. meaning, you can be fired at any time, for any reason (for no reason, actually).
so the tables have turned. he is a stay-at-home dad and i'm making the money. its sure going to suck come january when i'm no longer doing this job, and i just substitute teach, and our family has no benefits. yup. sure will suck.
everything else has been so out the window these past 3 months. its been beyond stressful.
"when you look into an abyss, the
abyss also looks into you."
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Quick update and last post for a long while (probably)
I just wanted to give a quick update about our family and what's going on (in case anyone is still reading this). Below are some pictures of our garden today. we just picked about 10 lbs of tomatoes and are making sauce today. we are also putting in our fall crops today including kale, collards, beets, broccoli, spinach and a few others.
I am started teaching 8th grade science full time last week. i will be teaching through Christmas, then the woman whose maternity leave I'm taking comes back.
Its hard knowing that my kids are in daycare all day, but we found a wonderful person who is watching only 4 children to take care of them, and they are adjusting well to be being gone during the day.
Most of our environmental stuff continues, and has become habit at this point. Other things just kind of fell by the wayside and we've stopped. In general, we continue to reduce our waste and don't use disposable products, although not buying anything with non-recyclable packaging has proved impossible for us for the time being. Driving to work has become a necessity with dropping off and picking up the kids. Making stuff from scratch is pretty much out the window. We are saving water as much as possible and conserving energy by not using the dryer and things like that.
When December rolls around, we will re-evaluate how things are going...if we aren't enjoying this arrangement, i'll stop working at that point or just sub a few days a week possibly. Its nice that i can get my feet wet teaching, but know that its only 3.5 months and then i can stop if i want. Its kind of overwhelming teaching and being mom to 2 young kids, but i have a lot of lessons planned out for me already by the woman whose leave i'm taking, so that is much easier. I have a lot of support at the school also because I student taught there, and I have a lot of mentor teachers to draw from.
I am enjoying my students and looking forward to doing fun stuff with them this year. I do have a lot of mother-guilt about leaving my kids, but in many ways i'm feeling really happy to have my own thing separate from them. Elsie still has her school 2 days a week, so she can see her old friends. Emmett is eating a lot of food, and not relying very heavily on nursing right now (in fact, i struggle to get him to nurse most days because he's so interested in crawling around, exploring and trying to walk) so that takes a lot of pressure off of me. He is a very happy, easy going guy who takes well to people, and doesn't seem at all upset that I leave him during the day. I think it helps that his big sister is there to help with him. They really love each other.
So that's about it. Life is going to be very crazy for the next few months.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
freak out
I think "a big freak out" pretty much characterizes our mood in the past three weeks. Basically, Jay lost his job. Well, Jay got "fired" for very, very unjust and unethical (and probably illegal) reasons. If we were litigious, or even interested in thinking about his boss ever again, we'd probably have grounds for a lawsuit. But, as it is, we're just moving on. I'd type the story, but if I ever have to tell the story again I think I might suffer a boredom-induced aneurysm.
We spent 3 weeks stressing out, nail biting, applying for jobs, wondering, worrying, etc. In the end, Jay got another job that pays slightly less, but is going to be a great new experience where he will learn a lot (and not have a boss who is a huge b*t&h) . Simultaneously, I got a job at a middle school. Its a temporary job teaching 8th grade science, which is going to work out well for me. Its a good first gig teaching because a lot of it is mapped out and I don't have to set up a classroom or anything. But I will have to be the real teacher for these kids from now until Christmas.
We found a great person to take care of our kids at our house while we work. She is going to bring her two kids--age 4 and 18 months--as well.
I wasn't really ready to go back to work, but it seems like this is a situation where we will all pitch in and just do what needs to be done. I'm actually excited to get back into the classroom. I think a lot of me felt like the longer I wasn't working, the scarier and scarier teaching was becoming. This will help me get a job next year. Part of me wanted to use this whole Jay-getting-fired-thing to just say "let's get out of here!", pull up roots, do something crazy like go live in a commune or buy an RV and drive across the country or something. Honestly, what stopped me was that I'm so incredibly sick of moving that I think if I have to move again in the next two years, I will puke. We've moved 7 times since 2000. Yes, that's once a year. We just told our landlord we would be here for two more years (because of the whole rent-raise thing, he agreed to not raise the rent again for two years at least and insulate the attic), and like the next day the specter of moving reared its ugly head. I was offered interviews at far-away districts, but really couldn't stomach it. Maybe next year. We have a whole year now to decide if we want to move. Maybe jay will really like his new job, and it won't even make sense to move.
While all this was going on, garbage increased and I think in the last month and a half I have put the garbage can out twice, but I can't remember. We started eating tons of food from our garden, and haven't bought any produce (save some fruit and avacados) from the store in about two months. We are up to our eyeballs in tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, pole beans, summer squash, herbs, peppers, lettuce, broccoli and chard. I'm still a little stunned at how well the garden has done, despite our ignorance in gardening. The whole thing has made me wonder why in the hell anyone ever uses chemicals? If you just use some compost and water a bit, you get a crop. There are so many spiders and ladybugs and such out there, i haven't seen hardly any problems. Maybe a few veggies here and there get relegated to the slugs or whatever, but hardly any. I guess doing huge monocrops for profit is different from what we're doing, but still.
I have been hearing a lot on NPR lately about people doing more with local food, global warming concerns, concerns about consumption (esp from China) and things, it really seems like people are starting to take a look at their personal choices more.
Another nice thing is that with our new jobs, it is very easy for both Jay and I to take the bus to our respective jobs. Mine is a 4 block walk and a 15 minute ride. Pretty good.
Sorry for the lag in posting. I will do better. While this whole thing was going on, I couldn't think about anything else. I think that is why the earth is screwed while so many people live in desperate poverty. Its hard to think about something nebulous like the future or the earth when you are wondering if you are going to be able to provide for your family.
We spent 3 weeks stressing out, nail biting, applying for jobs, wondering, worrying, etc. In the end, Jay got another job that pays slightly less, but is going to be a great new experience where he will learn a lot (and not have a boss who is a huge b*t&h) . Simultaneously, I got a job at a middle school. Its a temporary job teaching 8th grade science, which is going to work out well for me. Its a good first gig teaching because a lot of it is mapped out and I don't have to set up a classroom or anything. But I will have to be the real teacher for these kids from now until Christmas.
We found a great person to take care of our kids at our house while we work. She is going to bring her two kids--age 4 and 18 months--as well.
I wasn't really ready to go back to work, but it seems like this is a situation where we will all pitch in and just do what needs to be done. I'm actually excited to get back into the classroom. I think a lot of me felt like the longer I wasn't working, the scarier and scarier teaching was becoming. This will help me get a job next year. Part of me wanted to use this whole Jay-getting-fired-thing to just say "let's get out of here!", pull up roots, do something crazy like go live in a commune or buy an RV and drive across the country or something. Honestly, what stopped me was that I'm so incredibly sick of moving that I think if I have to move again in the next two years, I will puke. We've moved 7 times since 2000. Yes, that's once a year. We just told our landlord we would be here for two more years (because of the whole rent-raise thing, he agreed to not raise the rent again for two years at least and insulate the attic), and like the next day the specter of moving reared its ugly head. I was offered interviews at far-away districts, but really couldn't stomach it. Maybe next year. We have a whole year now to decide if we want to move. Maybe jay will really like his new job, and it won't even make sense to move.
While all this was going on, garbage increased and I think in the last month and a half I have put the garbage can out twice, but I can't remember. We started eating tons of food from our garden, and haven't bought any produce (save some fruit and avacados) from the store in about two months. We are up to our eyeballs in tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, pole beans, summer squash, herbs, peppers, lettuce, broccoli and chard. I'm still a little stunned at how well the garden has done, despite our ignorance in gardening. The whole thing has made me wonder why in the hell anyone ever uses chemicals? If you just use some compost and water a bit, you get a crop. There are so many spiders and ladybugs and such out there, i haven't seen hardly any problems. Maybe a few veggies here and there get relegated to the slugs or whatever, but hardly any. I guess doing huge monocrops for profit is different from what we're doing, but still.
I have been hearing a lot on NPR lately about people doing more with local food, global warming concerns, concerns about consumption (esp from China) and things, it really seems like people are starting to take a look at their personal choices more.
Another nice thing is that with our new jobs, it is very easy for both Jay and I to take the bus to our respective jobs. Mine is a 4 block walk and a 15 minute ride. Pretty good.
Sorry for the lag in posting. I will do better. While this whole thing was going on, I couldn't think about anything else. I think that is why the earth is screwed while so many people live in desperate poverty. Its hard to think about something nebulous like the future or the earth when you are wondering if you are going to be able to provide for your family.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Why vegan?
Why did I decide to be vegan in the first place? Why would anybody want to be vegan? I've been thinking about this a lot, because after a one-year period during which I was not vegan at all, I have a new appreciation for the reasons behind being vegan, and why most people aren't.
I have a friend whose boyfriend started this website called "Vegan Represent". His whole philosophy is basically that a vegan who "reprazents" is a happy, healthy, whole, fun, interesting, normal person, and is a good representative for veganism. People would be drawn to this person, and want to ask, through the course of normal human interactions, "why are you vegan anyway?" or, as happened to me recently "what does it mean when you order your burrito vegan?" Then you explain to that person, and quite possibly that causes the person to consider what you have to say. This is in contrast to the often-represented stereotype of a vegan who is in-your-face, angry and sullen--and easy to dismiss. People also think vegan food is boring and gross, which could not be further from the truth. But I'll save that for a later date.
I have to admit that I used to be more akin to the latter rather than the "vegan represent" variety. I have seen a lot of things through the course of educating myself, and then working for Farm Sanctuary, that made me want to yell "HOW CAN YOU NOT BE VEGAN, YOU SELFISH JERK?!" Usually, when you yell something like that at someone, they tend to want to ignore you or make fun of you.
After spending a year eating dairy, eggs and even fish, I grew accustomed to these things. I stopped feeling guilty about it. I started thinking things along these lines: After all, everyone around me eats these things, and they are Good People, so it can't be totally evil. And besides, I'm sick of feeling deprived, left-out, etc. I like eating these things.
After a few months, I just stopped thinking about it. I just ate what I wanted, and what everyone else was eating (except beef, chicken, pork, etc.)
Contrary to what most people think, vegans are actually a very compassionate and forgiving bunch, on the whole. Most of my vegan friends were like "I understand. It's hard." I don't think anybody gave me a hard time. I think if they would have, I would have only become more entrenched in my non-vegandom. A vegan friend (the same one whose boyfriend runs Vegan Represent) finally called me out on it. "So, on your blog it says you are eating half-and-half. What's up with that?" I explained to her my feelings (I like eating these things, etc.) and a conversation ensued over email that I was going to post here, but she wanted to edit. It finally just got edited, but is really long and full of potty language. It's so long that very few people will probably read it, so I won't post it. Suffice to say, it hit very near the mark and snapped me out of it. I had been vegan for nearly 7 years when I stopped, so it wasn't some passing fancy on my part. It was really a part of who I was. Being a non-vegan never did stop feeling strange, like I was impersonating something I wasn't.
Another wise vegan friend of mine, in an earlier conversation, after assuring me that she understood my lapse, told me about her thinking. She said that she can completely understand why people aren't vegan. Its easy, it tastes good, and its not exactly like meat and dairy producers are trying to tell you where the food comes from. You have to seek out information about the problems with it. Most people just don't do that. She said that there are two ways of thinking about something. The first is "should" thinking, the second is "is" thinking. For example, everybody should be vegan. People shouldn't shop at Wal-Mart. VS "people aren't vegan, they do eat lots of animal products." "People DO shop at walmart". The "is" way of thinking recognizes things as the way they are. And it causes the thinker to accept reality: You can only control what YOU do. You cannot control anybody else. This kind of thinking helps with not being angry. Because if you are going around talking about "people should be vegan" all the time, you are bound to notice the reality that people aren't. They "should" but they don't. Can you see how that would make somebody mad all the time? To think that way? It certainly did for me. My motto now is "I can only control my own actions (and through my actions, I might cause others to follow suit.)"
These days, it feels good to go back to being vegan. I have stopped feeling like it is a deprivation because it is a choice. I don't say "I can't eat that." I say "I choose not to eat that." One sounds like i'm being prevented from doing something I want to do. The other sounds like I am making a decision, and have power. I can actually picture where the food came from, and then I don't even want it anymore. For example, my biggest weakness would always be some kind of sweet, like brownies at a party that have eggs in them. I would want them, and would try to justify eating them. Now, I just picture the chickens that had to endure horrible conditions to lay those eggs, and ask myself if I NEED that brownie. Of course the answer is no, I don't need it. And when I think about the animal cruelty involved, I can say that I honestly don't want it anymore, either.
I would like to think that most people just don't have the facts about their food, and if given the information they would choose not to support those practices. It is true that some people don't want to know, and hope that through willful ignorance, they can just keep eating what they like without facing the fact that they are contributing to some pretty horrible suffering in the process. I know that is how it was with my thinking: If I don't think about it, then it doesn't exist.
In the spirit of dispelling some of this ignorance, for those who would choose to know, I am going to include the following information. I know that many people won't read this, or won't click on the links. I can only say that just because you don't look at it, doesn't mean its not happening. If you feel like knowledge might make you "have" to stop drinking milk, for example, and you are afraid of that, maybe you should think about it. If, on the other hand, you educate yourself about where cheese comes from, and you are still ok with eating it, then you are doing better than most people who have no idea why someone would choose to not eat cheese. I say these things truly in the spirit of non-judgment, but with the hope that people can use this information to make informed choices, and make the world a better place.
Eggs: Come from chickens who are de-beaked, force-molted and live in battery cages. "Free range" and "cage free" are terms that have no legal meaning (unlike Organic, which has strict standards that need to be met and certified to be labeled as such), and thus can be applied to eggs that are produced in extremely inhumane conditions.
Dairy: The only way to get a mammal, like a cow or goat, to lactate is to get that animal pregnant. You then have to take the baby away from the mother, (IF YOU ONLY CLICK ONE LINK HERE, MAKE IT THIS ONE) so it doesn't drink that milk. The dairy industry thus has a huge surplus of baby cows that they needed something to do with. That thing became veal. Thus, veal farming, a practice so cruel that most people won't eat it, couldn't exist without dairy. It can logically be argued that you would do more to alleviate animal suffering if you stopped drinking cow dairy than if you stopped eating meat. The same is true for organic dairy.
Meat: This issue is more varied. In some cases, animals like beef cows, have a much better, more normal life, than a battery cage hen or a dairy cow. They are still killed, of course, but generally aren't packed into tiny cages until the final feedlot stage of their life. Pork is another matter. The sows that produce the piglets are living in tiny cages called gestation crates and it is a pathetically miserable existence. Pig factory farms are some of the worst kinds of animal farming. Chickens and turkeys raised for meat are usually housed in huge warehouses. They are "debeaked" and don't have much room to move around. Its a filthy, uncomfortable and sad life.
There really isn't any way to eat an animal product without giving money to somebody to do something (that I hope) most people couldn't do themselves because it would be too sad and awful. If you rescue a chicken and that chicken lays eggs and you eat them, that's pretty much the only humane animal product. Otherwise, where animal's bodies are used to make a profit, those animals get turned into things. We all know that animals feel pain. So when they get treated like a thing, rather than a being that can experience suffering (sometimes intense, incomprehensibly awful suffering), it is incredibly tragic. People, like vegans, who have found out about this, are understandably angry and sad about it because they feel alone and mad that nobody but them cares about the pain these animals endure.
I hope you can take the time to examine your habits, and ask yourself if you need cheese, eggs or meat. Or if you are making an informed choice about it. I'd be interested in your comments on what i've posted here, if you'd like to add them.
I have a friend whose boyfriend started this website called "Vegan Represent". His whole philosophy is basically that a vegan who "reprazents" is a happy, healthy, whole, fun, interesting, normal person, and is a good representative for veganism. People would be drawn to this person, and want to ask, through the course of normal human interactions, "why are you vegan anyway?" or, as happened to me recently "what does it mean when you order your burrito vegan?" Then you explain to that person, and quite possibly that causes the person to consider what you have to say. This is in contrast to the often-represented stereotype of a vegan who is in-your-face, angry and sullen--and easy to dismiss. People also think vegan food is boring and gross, which could not be further from the truth. But I'll save that for a later date.
I have to admit that I used to be more akin to the latter rather than the "vegan represent" variety. I have seen a lot of things through the course of educating myself, and then working for Farm Sanctuary, that made me want to yell "HOW CAN YOU NOT BE VEGAN, YOU SELFISH JERK?!" Usually, when you yell something like that at someone, they tend to want to ignore you or make fun of you.
After spending a year eating dairy, eggs and even fish, I grew accustomed to these things. I stopped feeling guilty about it. I started thinking things along these lines: After all, everyone around me eats these things, and they are Good People, so it can't be totally evil. And besides, I'm sick of feeling deprived, left-out, etc. I like eating these things.
After a few months, I just stopped thinking about it. I just ate what I wanted, and what everyone else was eating (except beef, chicken, pork, etc.)
Contrary to what most people think, vegans are actually a very compassionate and forgiving bunch, on the whole. Most of my vegan friends were like "I understand. It's hard." I don't think anybody gave me a hard time. I think if they would have, I would have only become more entrenched in my non-vegandom. A vegan friend (the same one whose boyfriend runs Vegan Represent) finally called me out on it. "So, on your blog it says you are eating half-and-half. What's up with that?" I explained to her my feelings (I like eating these things, etc.) and a conversation ensued over email that I was going to post here, but she wanted to edit. It finally just got edited, but is really long and full of potty language. It's so long that very few people will probably read it, so I won't post it. Suffice to say, it hit very near the mark and snapped me out of it. I had been vegan for nearly 7 years when I stopped, so it wasn't some passing fancy on my part. It was really a part of who I was. Being a non-vegan never did stop feeling strange, like I was impersonating something I wasn't.
Another wise vegan friend of mine, in an earlier conversation, after assuring me that she understood my lapse, told me about her thinking. She said that she can completely understand why people aren't vegan. Its easy, it tastes good, and its not exactly like meat and dairy producers are trying to tell you where the food comes from. You have to seek out information about the problems with it. Most people just don't do that. She said that there are two ways of thinking about something. The first is "should" thinking, the second is "is" thinking. For example, everybody should be vegan. People shouldn't shop at Wal-Mart. VS "people aren't vegan, they do eat lots of animal products." "People DO shop at walmart". The "is" way of thinking recognizes things as the way they are. And it causes the thinker to accept reality: You can only control what YOU do. You cannot control anybody else. This kind of thinking helps with not being angry. Because if you are going around talking about "people should be vegan" all the time, you are bound to notice the reality that people aren't. They "should" but they don't. Can you see how that would make somebody mad all the time? To think that way? It certainly did for me. My motto now is "I can only control my own actions (and through my actions, I might cause others to follow suit.)"
These days, it feels good to go back to being vegan. I have stopped feeling like it is a deprivation because it is a choice. I don't say "I can't eat that." I say "I choose not to eat that." One sounds like i'm being prevented from doing something I want to do. The other sounds like I am making a decision, and have power. I can actually picture where the food came from, and then I don't even want it anymore. For example, my biggest weakness would always be some kind of sweet, like brownies at a party that have eggs in them. I would want them, and would try to justify eating them. Now, I just picture the chickens that had to endure horrible conditions to lay those eggs, and ask myself if I NEED that brownie. Of course the answer is no, I don't need it. And when I think about the animal cruelty involved, I can say that I honestly don't want it anymore, either.
I would like to think that most people just don't have the facts about their food, and if given the information they would choose not to support those practices. It is true that some people don't want to know, and hope that through willful ignorance, they can just keep eating what they like without facing the fact that they are contributing to some pretty horrible suffering in the process. I know that is how it was with my thinking: If I don't think about it, then it doesn't exist.
In the spirit of dispelling some of this ignorance, for those who would choose to know, I am going to include the following information. I know that many people won't read this, or won't click on the links. I can only say that just because you don't look at it, doesn't mean its not happening. If you feel like knowledge might make you "have" to stop drinking milk, for example, and you are afraid of that, maybe you should think about it. If, on the other hand, you educate yourself about where cheese comes from, and you are still ok with eating it, then you are doing better than most people who have no idea why someone would choose to not eat cheese. I say these things truly in the spirit of non-judgment, but with the hope that people can use this information to make informed choices, and make the world a better place.
Eggs: Come from chickens who are de-beaked, force-molted and live in battery cages. "Free range" and "cage free" are terms that have no legal meaning (unlike Organic, which has strict standards that need to be met and certified to be labeled as such), and thus can be applied to eggs that are produced in extremely inhumane conditions.
Dairy: The only way to get a mammal, like a cow or goat, to lactate is to get that animal pregnant. You then have to take the baby away from the mother, (IF YOU ONLY CLICK ONE LINK HERE, MAKE IT THIS ONE) so it doesn't drink that milk. The dairy industry thus has a huge surplus of baby cows that they needed something to do with. That thing became veal. Thus, veal farming, a practice so cruel that most people won't eat it, couldn't exist without dairy. It can logically be argued that you would do more to alleviate animal suffering if you stopped drinking cow dairy than if you stopped eating meat. The same is true for organic dairy.
Meat: This issue is more varied. In some cases, animals like beef cows, have a much better, more normal life, than a battery cage hen or a dairy cow. They are still killed, of course, but generally aren't packed into tiny cages until the final feedlot stage of their life. Pork is another matter. The sows that produce the piglets are living in tiny cages called gestation crates and it is a pathetically miserable existence. Pig factory farms are some of the worst kinds of animal farming. Chickens and turkeys raised for meat are usually housed in huge warehouses. They are "debeaked" and don't have much room to move around. Its a filthy, uncomfortable and sad life.
There really isn't any way to eat an animal product without giving money to somebody to do something (that I hope) most people couldn't do themselves because it would be too sad and awful. If you rescue a chicken and that chicken lays eggs and you eat them, that's pretty much the only humane animal product. Otherwise, where animal's bodies are used to make a profit, those animals get turned into things. We all know that animals feel pain. So when they get treated like a thing, rather than a being that can experience suffering (sometimes intense, incomprehensibly awful suffering), it is incredibly tragic. People, like vegans, who have found out about this, are understandably angry and sad about it because they feel alone and mad that nobody but them cares about the pain these animals endure.
I hope you can take the time to examine your habits, and ask yourself if you need cheese, eggs or meat. Or if you are making an informed choice about it. I'd be interested in your comments on what i've posted here, if you'd like to add them.
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