A friend is going through a major transition in life, from intense animal rights activist, to a full-time job with an organization devoted to helping mentoring children. Not an easy change in personal lifestyle, but no less worthy than the prior work.
Let me explain. As activists, we can get involved in pretty intense, physically demanding, and emotionally involving work. By our very nature, we throw ourselves into these efforts in the faith and belief that we can help make a change. It can be all-consuming in process and alienate ourselves from both friends and family. This can also precipitate internal self doubt: "what the hell am I doing??"
What we sometimes miss, in the final attempted analysis, is that we can't always know the results of our efforts. Correspondingly, we can't always know if it's the subtle or quiet act we make or do in life that has a significant impact versus that which involves a lot of fire, smoke, and action.
Several years ago I met a man with "Turban" & my interaction with him (blogged about here) taught me an important lesson in life. Has to do with the concept of "faith."
You canNOT know, in advance, what impact any action you take or make will have, ultimately. The ripples of impact through space/time are not predictable. At best, you can have the highest moral and spiritual motivation behind EVERY action or motion you make, take, or think. No other conclusion makes any sense. Butterfly-effect in full force. We move energy, by thought & action, and this is an inescapable reality.
To my new friend regarding working with an organization helping children: who knows what impact the seeds you'll help plant will grow? These children deserve, at minimum, as much attention as AR groups give poor Factory Farmed Animals. In a real sense, are not these kids being "factory farmed" by a negligent & mentally/emotionally inept political system as well? Who knows what wonderful accomplishments will be effectived by even one child helped?
There is nothing wrong with helping humans survive and thrive, and in fact, I wish more animal rights "activists" remembered this. They sometimes seems so focused on "animal" issues as to forget "human health" issues. I sometimes weary of them providing ridiculously unhealthy recipes ("Oh, but they ARE vegan") with the cavlier attitude that the "ends justifies the means, and it's for the animals." They are helping contribute to salt, fat, & sugar taste addictions. My particular issue: heart healthy humans. Does this make me an animal rights activist? On some cognitive levels, yes.
We are ALL activists to some degree. It's just that some of us recognize it consciously, and focus that flow. But in effect, we are activists whether we want to be or not. Every interaction, action, motion, thought, affects (activates) the system. Humans are animals, or rather, animals include humans. In a real sense, any efforts towards helping "humans" and "animals" (sometimes it's absurd to assume a distinction between the two) is an animal rights effort (sorry, won't go into the silly "welfare" issue here).
What I do know is that we have to live our lives at the highest standards we can, and trust/have faith that we are doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people we can. We pick and choose our causes as vegan activists, and all should be respected. More importantly, we may never know the ultimate results of our efforts, but at least we strive towards a better world for all animals.
Including us.
Twitter: @solveggie
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