veganarky

My friend Sherbs time came to an end today, after living with breast cancer for a few years. This has struck me in myriad ways, some quite unexpected and at times a little overwhelming —irrespective that it was expected any day, after her move into hospice care a week or so ago. I am struggling a little with words, and some feel just wrong. For example, in trying to describe Sherbs’ wonderful smile — which light up rooms, what comes to mind is ‘infectious’… In part, an awareness of how I need to work on processing aspects of life (and death) has come to the fore again. These words here are an …

I think many (most, all?) of us are troubled by the question of how effective what we do is. And that this question exists outside of specifics about what it is exactly that we do. I was challenged on this recently, resulting in this reflection. Reflection is something we should all do, regularly and repeatedly, as long as such reflection is not crippling. More than the last 15+ years of my life have had working for a more just world as their precursor. What actions I have taken, being many and varied, have all emanated from this maxim. The first question which arises is how do we define, labe…

The term vegansexual emerged in 2007. It was coined by Annie Potts, the co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Human and Animal Studies, and Madala White, at the University of Canterbury. They were researching cruelty-free consumption, with the findings published as Cruelty-Free Consumption in New Zealand: A National Report on the Perspectives and Experiences of Vegetarians & Other Ethical Consumers. Annie Potts and Jovian Parry analysed responses to the term vegansexual following substantial media interest in the study, suggesting ‘that the vigorous reactions of self-identified omnivor…

I have watched three very human films over the last several weeks: Into the Wild (2007), The Road (2009), and Che (2008) Parts 1 and 2 — in that order. I found Into the Wild both inspiring and depressing. I am still processing (or trying not to think about) The Road, which was quite challenging to watch. Part 2 of Che, which I watched most recently, left me feeling quite depressed. My initial thoughts revolved around a personal need to have something more than trying to reduce the suffering and untold destruction our species is imposing on all other species and th…