To Those Who Cry Often - introduction

There are unavoidable hidden insults, assumptions and misunderstandings in so much of what we are told.

Your diet is radical."

"I wouldn't want to sacrifice my social life."

"You wouldn't want to date me, then."

"Be careful."

The list goes on.

If I had a dollar for every time I was asked the "protein question", I assure you I would not be living in a share house so far from the beach! Standard-Australian-diet-eaters raise the wrong concern when they learn I eat a plant-based diet. That is, my physical health.

Amongst us are some of the most compassionate humans, yet we are not invincible ourselves. Rather, we are deep thinkers and painfully deep feelers. Many of us are overwhelmed with loneliness.

On a Vegans Of Australia page on Facebook, I was having a vent about a cyber troll. This "friend" kept putting labels on me that I didn't identify with, based solely on my becoming vegan.

The first comment I received was worded profoundly, "I have concluded that to be vegan is to cry often." THIS is the true concern. Our battle really has very little to do with our food, and more to do with our friends.

While our physical and perhaps even mental health is thriving more than ever, while we are easing into eating more veggies, or making our messy transition, the real attack is not deficiencies.

Rather, the attack is far more personal. It is from the less educated and less compassionate among us.

To those who are the SLIGHTEST bit interested in plant food, let me be your #1 cheerleader.

To those who "cry often" (you know who you are), let me be the one who validates your social struggles.

TO BE CONTINUED........................