Everyone has superpowers, mine are love and compassion.

I find myself more and more in a schizofrenic way of feeling towards a lot of people I love. Before elaborating on that heavy sentence, let me explain some opinion of mine.

Since the dawn of the abrahamistic religions we have this notion of good people and bad people. And the good people will go to heaven or a variation on that concept, the bad ones are send down to hell. I came to the realization this is a complete messed up way of thinking and I really dislike religions for having put this idea in our collective minds. It just does not work that way. The concept of a good person and a bad person implicates there is one and only one high moral code or law which should be followed to be good. How otherwise could anyone or anything be valued as being good or bad. How I experience things is that every human on this planet has its own specific personal moral code. Those moral codes are being formed by parents, education, close environment, local society, self-exploration, personal experiences,... I believe it is impossible to find 2 persons with the exact same moral code. Laws describe in a way a moral code for a society, a large group of people, but that only happens because the majority of that group of people agreed (hopefully it is not forced upon them, which definitely did happen sometimes in the course of history too) on some part of their moral codes and thought it was easier to live by these rules by writing them down.

So... Good people and bad people do not exist. There are only choices and some choices will be perceived as good through your moral code, others will be perceived as bad through your moral code. But it is perfectly possible that on some certain choice what is good in my moral code might be bad in yours. This is an important realization. Although we want to believe it to be true, 'universal good' and 'universal bad' do not exist. Good and bad are always and will always be very personal subjective concepts.

And so, with that being said, I can finally address the elephant in the room, I can now elaborate on my first sentence. Respect for nature, caring for all sentient living beings, being compassionate, acting from the heart, those are the elements that make up the biggest part of my personal moral code. Those terms make up the majority of my personal scale to decide if something, someone or some choice is good or bad. If you put all of that together being vegan is the only 'good' moral lifestyle you can choose. And thus I find myself conflicted almost in a schizofrenic way for loving and caring for a lot of people who do not share that part of my moral code, because on that very important part of my moral code the scale tips to the 'bad' side for them.

People say you don't have to feel this conflict, you can just respect that the other person has a different moral code, a different point of view. But... That is something really hard to do. This part of my moral code is very important. It feels like saying to a murderer: 'it's okay, I respect that murder is not an issue in your moral code'. You see how weird that sounds I hope.

I really came to think about this subject by two specific encounters I had.

The first one was a discussion I had with a friend. (I will respect the privacy of this person and not name him/her, I'm quiet sure this person will know it's about him/her while reading this.) This friend found it very difficult to believe that I respect him/her as a person and as a friend, while I cannot feel the littlest respect for his/her choice to not eat vegan. Even stronger, in my moral book, not eating vegan would be condemned. This person feels I'm putting him/her on the same pedastale as murderers and rapists. I can understand it's not easy to hear from a friend that they do not respect certain choices you (don't) make, but I'm not going to lie about it either. To all my friends and family, I still do appreciate the relationship we have, I am grateful you were there when I needed you, I'm certain we have a lot in common (otherwise we wouldn't be friends) and I still want to share with you those things that we have in common, but no, if you are not (yet) adapting a vegan lifestyle, than I cannot 'just respect/accept' that.

The second one occurred here in Tuxtla. We found 6 newborn cats. One of the nuns (and actually the one I feel generally the greatest affinity for) reacted to 'kill them or leave them somewhere to die'. I'm sorry but if your reaction upon finding 6 newborn helpless fluffy babies (humans, cats, aliens, whatever sentient beings) is to kill them, than you are just a plain psychopath in my book. I can understand you don't have the time or money to care for them, but there is always a better solution. Luckely I was there to protect them and give them a chance at survival. Anyway, I felt very conflicted, it made me rage inside, I was so angry and disappointed, but at the same time I still look up to her in the context of the children's home and I can still have nice conversations with her.

To all the people who still support animal cruelty in some or other way I want to say that culture and habit can be an explanation for what you do, but it will never be a justification. In our age of information, ignorance is a choice. I don't ever want to hear from anyone 'wir haben es nicht gewußt', the information is out there, I am shoving it in your face constantly, you just have to open your eyes, grow a heart and start to care.

Someone I have a very strong connection with told me very recently that everyone has Superpowers and that mine are love and compassion. It was the biggest compliment someone ever gave me and it made me a little emotional, but I actually think it is very sad that showing love and compassion should be seen as a superpower. Our society has become so blunt that someone who actually gives a crap is special.

So I want to end this post with a question you should ask the man/woman in the mirror. What is your superpower, and what are you doing with it?

Greetings,

B. Supertramp.

#GoVegan