vegan and Austen

[Guest guest]

Hi -

" Love and Friendship " contains five short pieces that

Austen wrote when she was young. The title piece was

penned when she was only 14. They're all brilliant,

especially at satirizing the literary conventions of

the day.

As to your vegan friend at work--I have totally

been there. The first animal products I ate after 18

years of abstinence were eggs. This was more of a

political decision than one based on my

cravings/desires: I hated the idea of the baby calf

dying so I could have milk. It was more palatable to

me to eat eggs--hens lay eggs because that's what they

do. I made sure to get non-caged, local eggs. But it's

partly going to depend on what you're friend is

craving. What I really *craved* was cream

cheese--starving for fat. Seems like a no-brainer now,

but I didn't know then what I know now. I didn't think

that I liked butter or milk. But that's because I'd

never HAD real butter or milk. The first time I tasted

homemade cultured butter from Jersey cows I thought

I'd died and gone to heaven. My memory of butter was

something that tasted sort of rancid and nasty. Now I

eat the stuff with a spoon. So it may help her to get

the appropriate kinds of dairy products.

The thing is, when you're in the vegan world, it's

totally self-contained. All the information you're

getting is endlessly recirculated " facts " about how

animal products aren't natural for humans and are

killing us. Breaking through that is almost like

leaving a cult. You may very well lose friends. At the

very least your social life will be strained. The

evidence of my own body (which was completely falling

apart) didn't outweigh the beliefs that I held to. And

I wish some of my friends would learn from my dietary

mistakes. But they won't. Most vegans believe very

passionately that they're doing the right thing: for

the earth, for animals, for their own health. It makes

a very nice little package of simple right and wrong.

Having so much moral and emotional investment in food

makes changing one's diet a lot harder than it would

otherwise be. Being a vegan was a really primary

identity, and it didn't change easily. I remember

being happy on my 32 birthday because from that point

on I was going to be a vegan for longer than I'd been

a meat eater (I went vegan at 16). I still hear the

word " vegan " and sometimes for a split second still

think " me " rather than " not me. "

Of course, one bite of tuna fish and it was all

over. But I had to get totally and utterly desperate

before I took that one bite. It's been a lesson in

fanatacism. The really chilling part has been reading

about vegan children, cases where parents have refused

to give their kids animal foods until the baby

literally dies. Would I have done that if I had had

children? I hope not, though I sure did a number on my

body. I hope your friend has more sense.

Lierre

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