Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi
Since Today is Feast of St. Francis, I would like to reflect on why I am vegan. What does it mean to be a vegan? Well, it means that I do not consume any animal product such as food, clothing, makeup, and furniture to name a few. How did little me come to choose this life path? The story begins with my Dad’s health scare.
Dad did not like the fact that his doctor was putting him cholesterol medication. After receiving the diagnosis, Dad began researching ways to avoid taking medication and he stumbled upon Dr. Joel Fuhrman. A plant-based Doctor who said that if you ate a high nutrient dense plant based vegan diet you can take away the need to be on cholesterol medication, along with lowering your risk for many first world diseases. After that, Dad was sold and went full speed implementing the plant based vegan diet into his life and his family. At this time I was a junior at Purdue just trying to successfully receive my engineering degree and every time I would call home I would hear some spiel on why I needed to eat this way so I could be healthy. Thankfully when you call your parents they cannot see you roll your eyes.
Eventually I was just fed up with listening to the spiels and one phone call home I asked Mom “Why is Dad badgering me with this?” Mom’s response was simple “Because he loves you”. Throughout the rest of our conversation, Mom told me to at least try it and I took that to heart.
I slowly took animal products out of my diet to where now it is almost non-existent. However, after beginning to eat this way I felt like there was something missing to why I was doing this. Then January 21, 2014 happened. I lost my friend Andrew to a student who chose to take his life while he was teaching an engineering lab. Since then the question of “Why” has never really left my conscience. Questions like “Why did it have to be Andrew?”, “Why was this student allowed to purchase a gun?”, and “Why couldn’t I be there for Andrew when he needed a friend?”. Slowly those questions began to morph into “Why do we inflict pain and suffering on to our brothers and sisters?”, “Why are corporate gains more important than the earth we live in together?”, “Why am I Catholic?”, and “Why do I call myself vegan?”. Soon after, I began to slowly answer those questions for myself.
As I began to answer “Why do I call myself vegan?” the easy answer often popped up; “Well it is a healthy diet and I feel satisfied about my physical health”. I could have left it at that but it was only a surface answer. I began again to rethink my thought process and ask another question. If suddenly all of the grocery stores disappeared; would I be willing to kill a cow to make a hamburger or a chicken for some wings? I believe the answer is no, I knew that once I started to care for the cow or chicken they would become part of my family and then killing Bessy the Cow for hamburger or Clarence the Chicken for wings was then immoral to me. I then asked myself questions about eggs, milk, fish, honey, wool, leather, and fur. I soon discovered the way we mass produce these products did not sit well with my conscience. To be fair that does not began incorporate how we use animals for makeup testing or scientist’s plans to merge animal DNA with human DNA in order to harvest the animal’s organs suitable for human transplant surgeries. The way we exploit and abuse animals for our own gain and comfort boggles me.
I now know why I want be vegan. Even when I become discouraged with the struggle I like to read Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si especially this passage: “In calling to mind the figure of Saint Francis of Assisi, we come to realize that a healthy relationship with creation is one dimension of the overall personal conversion,which entails the recognition of our errors,sins,faults, and failures, and leads to heartfelt repentance and desire to change.”(218)
I am vegan because I do not want to contribute to destruction of creation and instead be a peacemaker for creation.
- Anna Kristie