My thanks to all and each who inspire this blog 🙂
I appreciate my readers and am ever grateful for each of you — including those who disagree with some (or all) content here, or those who have tripped into my blog by entering a type O graphical error in a Google search bar. Say you’re interested in discovering something germane and find German instead. Many (most) might feel that nothing I write is germane to many (most) surfers’ interests.
Today’s comment of the day is from Robert, creator of Words for Breakfast, a worthwhile blog I recommend to your attention on the basis of its inherent interest and merit:
“…Vegans, Vegetarians and proponents of sustainable living should work together more, be more receptive to each other instead of trying to convince each other of the rightness of their opinion…”
Please allow me to quote from my reply:
“… You are absolutely right about the need to work together with as many fellow travelers as possible. I believe in joining with others in solidarity, even if you disagree with them on many other issues. Creating enemies by edict solves nothing and poisons the soil… — crap drains no sewer…”
Vegans are not the only planetary inhabitants who recognize that a sustainable environment is not a luxury or a fantasy. Solidarity for sustainability unites many with whom you may disagree: mildly or vehemently. We have no Plan B Planet.
I believe that sustainability is a rock-solid rule of Mother Nature, a rule enforced by her forces of evolution and devolution. You break the rules by stacking the deck in your favor, resulting in expulsion.
Before going any further, let me recommend a recent review and summation of a recent symposium in Sheffield UK by Mira Lieberman, a scholar who combines voice and verve at a sustained level of competence. Thorough and well written? Yes, indeed.
Sometimes the rules are blatantly not caused by planetary inhabitants. Sizable meteors are also a force of nature, as is a dying sun. The dinosaurs had been around far longer than mammals, for example. Extinction Event Number 5 was not of their doing. Sometimes being in the wrong place at the wrong time just happens. Sorry ’bout that.
Venus became enshrouded by clouds, setting hypothetical Venusians up for the heartbreak of The Greenhouse Effect. Your assignment: write an essay (50,000 words or less) on the topic: what I think happened to Venus.
Extinction Event Number 6 may be well on the way to completion, I’ve heard that nothing is completed until it is finished, or something. Unfortunately most other innocent fellow species are thus endangered. Many species have already disappeared through a process known as ‘extinction’ — something as natural as getting hit by a largish meteor or squeezed into a cul-de-sac by a human crave for lebensraum or some other geopolitical impulse.
Extinction events usually take millions or billions of years to complete. Leave it to the self-appointed kings of the hill, self-named topper of the food chain to deserve an “anthropocentric” geological era.
Perhaps robots invented by homo sapiens will begin a “cene” of their own after their creators leave the scene.
Vegan Venn Diagram o’ the Day
Venn diagrams are useful heuristics. Here is one from VeganStreet.com that departs from the conventional Meatist perspective. I’m calling it the Venn diagram o’ the day.
Hoping that you like the idea of complimenting a comment with a complementing commentary. 🙂
Thanks for reading.
billziegler1947 
Thank you, Bill.
I find that every argument in favor of sustainability, carried to its dispassionate, logical conclusion precludes using animals for food.
Humans are neither dispassionate or logical, however, and tend to carry forward behaviors learned in childhood, thoughtlessly from one generation to the next.
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Thanks again for your inspiring words, Robert 🙂
Attention is lent to the price at the checkout line, not the replenishment orders triggered at the point of sale, nor the cost to the ecosystem. It’s the antithesis of sustainability from cart to landfill.
Tight family bonds form around every celebration, from Thanksgiving Rockwell style to Super Bowl Sunday. Associations with good times and bonding moments keep it going year to year, generation to generation.
As a huge segment of the GNP non-sustainable practices bring all forms of marketing to the fore, and an unquestioning appetite, not to mention the plastic straws and plastic utensils sealed in plastic that are as likely tossed into the trash without being used in the first place.
Meat defines the meal, the other items, called “sides”, are typically slathered in butter. Raw broccoli, carrots and bell peppers are delivery devices for ranch dressing — eating them without dip brings surprised glances.
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Bill, I’ve only recently come to the conclusion that sustainability is paramount, is the overriding factor, not animal rights, health concerns or any other individually motivating factor, no matter how valid, how heartfelt.
I suspect you are way ahead of me in that regard.
I started a vegetarian diet simply to become healthier and minimalism so I could travel more easily. I could have as easily picked some form of the Mediterranean diet and rented
a small storage unit which I considered when choosing as I did. One choice leads to another.
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Hey, there’s Robert, from Lettuce For Breakfast, or is it Words For Breakfast? [No, that’s a type O, Bill. Kinda.] Take care the both of you — from your passionately illogical humanoid friend, Hariod.
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Hi Hariod. I keep looking for new posts from you that force me to think about something in a different light. I still think about nothing happening. I still disagree, maybe. 😁
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Hi Robert!
Thanks for the curiosity. I’m currently doing some more long form writing, and leaving the blog on idle whilst I do so. Trying to do something more creative this time, which is new territory for me.
Yeah, ‘nothing happening’ is a tricky one, and of course things are happening whilst nothing happening’s happening, so it’s not like nothing is nothing, as it happens.
All best wishes, Hariod.
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Robert, Thanks for the perspective. Sustainable environments are complex interlinking ecosystems, each delicately balanced in a dynamic equilibrium. A single specie now exploits each ecosystem for short term gain. Humans leverage “resources” to maximize production at the lowest price. There were 2 billion homo sapiens on Earth when I was born. That number has nearly quadrupled to 8 billion. Factory farms exploit technological breakthroughs and cheap labor to produce products in inconceivably large varieties distributed through inconceivably enormous logistic chains. It resembles an ecosystem in its complexity only, since it is designed to service a single specie and its fickle fads of vanity — such as the breeding of expensive designer pets.
Well I shall stop now, for this reply looks like it too is turning into a post already. Reader comments really do inspire me greatly.
May minimalism sustain you greatly 🙂
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No Plan B planet—there really is no point more concise or more unarguable than that 🙂 As a vegan, I admit that it can be so easy at times to get lost in my frustrations and forget that we are not the only ones who care. Thank you for the reminder and thank you for sharing!
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Hi Bill,
Kudos for the thoughtful headline of this post. I am glad to have read your post, especially as I didn’t trip here. I came here because I deliberately searched for posts about sustainability, which is an area of interest to me.
I am particularly delighted about your notion of “solidarity for sustainability”, because it resonates with my thinking. I believe that everyone has a role to play in humanity’s transition to sustainability. We all need to join hands, no matter our differences, to tackle the sustainability-related problems confronting humanity.
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Hello Pius, Thank you for the kind words on my writing spirit. It is an honor to welcome you to these pages and to join with you in solidarity for sustainability. Each of us on this shared planet does indeed play a role in the transition from an unworkable model. A voice with verve resonates far and wide to join hands everywhere. I hear your voice and recognize your verve. Namaste 🙂
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