Next Time

While running this morning around a local lake I witnessed a man catch a fish and casually toss it in the air to land at the feet of a companion some several yards away - where the man left it flopping on the ground, fighting for it's life. Things like this aren't easy for a vegan to see - it's a reverence for life and a sensitivity to suffering that brings many to this life style and both of these qualities only increase the longer one remains a vegan. I am sure the fisherman views himself as a good person, kind and decent and I would not say otherwise - yet we as a people have generally become so callused towards the suffering of animals (and others) that a living being literally fighting to maintain it's existence goes unnoticed. It was hard for me to not say something or take action and perhaps I should have - I've asked myself if I am as much to blame as the men fishing and the honest answer that comes to me leaves me feeling ashamed. To witness suffering and allow it to happen makes one a participant - there is no casual observation in a participatory universe. But again to be honest - I don't know what I could or should have done -all I really know that the weapon at hand were and are my words to educate and inform and hopefully plant a seed of awareness within the heart of a good man who simply did not know the capacity for other beings to suffer in the very same way we all do. Next time....

Peace,
Eric