For the Love of Guava

I listen to conservative radio… don’t ask me why… I’m surprised I haven’t crashed yet screaming at the voices over the airwaves while stuck in gridlock. I just feel like I know I’m pretty liberal and I read liberal media so I should sort of balance it out and hear what the other side has to rant about (although “mainstream” media does a pretty good job of getting me worked up as well). I figure I’ll know I really believe in what I do if hearing that stuff makes me angry and I can give Mr. Guava well formulated dissertations on why I’m angry… not that he doesn’t generally completely agree but I’m not really a call-in screamer… although maybe I should put my rants to better use on less sympathizing ears.

At any rate the station was doing a can drive at different locations and really pushing what an awful and unbelievable thing it was to have the number of American families in “food instability” situations on the rise. Don’t get me wrong I’m not going to knock a good thing but the irony of it all sort of hit me. This station (and I realize all these things aren’t the same) generally pose the conservative, meat-eating, no-nonsense, straight shooting, figure out what’s best for me and mine side versus the crazy, limp wristed, bleeding heart, tree/cow hugging liberals constantly working themselves into a tizzy over the environment and helping the under-privileged side. Today, however, they were urging the need to “share with thy neighbor” and to give what you could… even if what you could was very little.

Now I don’t know why all of you out there in vegan blogland choose your consumption choices the way you do. I’m sure that we all have varied personal reasons but also a few core similarities. As a relatively new vegetarian (almost a year!) working towards veganism (pretty damn close!) I definitely had several reasons coming in. I started out, mainly, with this inherent feeling of disgust over my own socialized speciesism. It just sort of hit me one day… this gnawing sensation that had always been there… was finally too big to ignore. I could no longer wrap my head around the justification of “needing” to eat meat. Finally allowing myself to investigate what I always knew was wrong about it I could also no longer justify my intake of dairy.

This change in diet, and consequent need to re-organize how I thought about balancing my nutrition, led me to a more criticizing eye of my food choices and suddenly buying and eating things because of their “convenience” became a trade-off that wasn’t worth it. I still have so much to learn and so much further I would like to take my consumption choices but the extent to which my general understanding has changed has truly been, at least to me, mind-blowing.

What am I getting at?? Isn’t that always the question with my posts dear Guava readers?? (Thanks for sticking with me!) Well, coming into the holidays and generally being seen as a buzzkill for my food choices (not that I’m not pretty used to being the black sheep) I find myself on the defense quite a bit. I’m generally tagged as “the ranter” always up in arms about something (I’m an optimist… if I was a pessimist I’d give up and let it go right?) or another. While I know I don’t need to defend myself I often do and the response I get to becoming vegan has been really surprising. I feel that often times I come up against anger… ANGER? Seriously, I think this coming out has been one of the hardest for me although they all sort of follow the same trajectory (me tossing the idea around in my head, deciding this has to be done, mentioning timidly, declaring defensively, and, hopefully soon, stating confidently). I’m not sure where this anger comes from but I have a sneaking suspicion that it actually has to do with people realizing that their food choices really don’t make sense. That when they really look at the facts they can’t justify it either. I think what’s scariest is always what hits closest to home.

And finally I return to the food drive. I was just thinking about the general rants/raves on the radio station and the way in which a wall is built up so a lot of consumption choices really aren’t questioned. And it made me realize that it really is about consciousness raising and getting to the root of a problem. I’m not opposing that we all donate to our local charities… if you can please do… and I’m not opposing that we stop all our other fights for the little guy, girl, or vagina as the case may be but I am proposing that we start looking at the world we’ve created and the problems we’ve come to encounter from a bottom up perspective rather than a top down. Right now we definitely need some band-aids… but band-aids on a continuous open sore just aren’t sustainable just like the way we’re living isn’t sustainable.

I’ve always had a problem with “causes.” I definitely have some pretty steadfast beliefs but when it comes to “joining up” I often can’t get on board because of how and what things are addressed. This is one thing that has really connected me to my recent food choices. What can I say I’m a Guava that needs a reason and in terms of my new consumption choices I have that in spades. It’s really a whole new way of looking at things and for those that would rant and rave at us to care more about our “own kind” than some barnyard livestock I can feel confident that not only am I not compromising my conscience or inflicting pain on another sentient being but that I am also doing my part by living on a more sustainable diet that can help feed many more than a meat based one. I can feel confident that by showing compassion for other species I am helping to create a world that isn’t limited by lack of resources but rather enhanced through common sustainable goal setting. I can feel confident that I’m attacking the cause rather than the effect. And, most comforting, I can feel confident that for once in this crazy world that doesn’t always make sense what feels and taste good is also what’s right!

So if you made it to the end thanks for listening. That wasn’t necessarily supposed to be a pat on the back although I’m giving myself one (we can all use one now and then) but rather just my morning pondering. I thought I’d share it with all my Guava sympathizers first because even though I don’t have to have one (I’m still in the defensive stage of my Vegan Coming Out!) this will be my X-mas Defense.