The Problematic Hunt for Perfection

"Why worry? If you've done the very best you can, worrying isn't going to make it any better"

~Walt Disney

In my previous posts, 'Nobody's perfect' and 'Disney's Animal Kingdom For Your Consideration' I touched on perfectionism, the attitude of "if you can't do it perfectly don't bother" and life's grey areas. Still I think this topic merits a more in depth look. This entry is going to focus on problematic perfectionism within the vegan community but this is not a vegan specific problem I'd argue this can be applied to almost anything in life but I want to focus on this for a second. The opinions expressed here are my own and maybe controversial but I feel this is an important discussion to be had.
Every step counts. There is a difference between a plant based diet and being vegan, vegan is an ethical choice and complete life style where as plant based is a diet for health or personal reasons that does not extend past diet and can include any version of a 'mostly vegetarian or vegan diet'. I totally understand why people feel it is important to differentiate the two, this can get foggy as its usually easier when ordering food to say vegan than to explain plant based to servers, and this in turn causes confusion about what is and isn't vegan.
  The original definition of vegan "A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals" .
Things start getting complicated when you get past dairy,eggs and meat and start looking into things like oysters,insects, medicine, etc.  The original definition is in a sense sort of vague in the sense that it used words like strives and practical this is very important because this takes into account life's challenges ,struggles and grey areas. In a world unfortunately centered around animals being products and that being the norm accessibility becomes and important factor, someone may hold all the core beliefs of a vegan but have to bend in action and this is not something they should be crucified for.A single parent on social assistance may have no choice but to feed their family zoodles which contains dairy or some other bi product due to finances and/or whats available at the local food bank.
Now of course this is an extreme scenario and generally not what vegans are addressing when they call something out as not vegan or not vegan enough but some of the harsh language and anger I've seen makes me wonder what the affect would be if someone taking positive steps saw and felt they cannot be pure enough and give up,
What I am saying is we need to be kind and compassionate teachers, not police. People do and will look for way to justify wrong and actions and make excuses for why they can't strive for better but we can't know who is and is not doing that and in the end the only actions we are responsible for are our own, so being cruel because something 'isn't vegan enough' or because someone relapsed with old habits, does not discredit their progress, it discredits yours.
Everyday we should strive to be a little better and harm a little less without obsessing over mistakes or road blocks along the way. If you dig deep enough or look hard enough our actions no matter how well intended will cause harm somewhere be it pollution from our car, energy waste from our computers, animal products in our medicine, there is no perfection and trying to hold ourselves or other to an unreachable standard only makes the fall hurt that much worse when we realize we can't reach it.
So educate people, hold yourself and others accountable for words and actions but do so kindly and without forgetting everyone has a journey and struggles, not everything is black or white the world indeed is grey.

Nobody is Perfect

Nobody is Perfect

When deciding to do a public blog/vlog one thing that worried me, particularly with the decision to put vegan in the title was society's obsession with perfection. I've heard different things falling under this same umbrella from both vegans and non-vegans so I wanted to use one of my first entries to address this and get it out of the way.

Since transitioning to vegan I have heard a lot of comments that boil down to things a long the lines of, “you can't make a difference”, “if you can't save every animal why bother?” , “well ____ still happens”. Similarly in vegan online communities I've seen many steps and actions labeled as not vegan enough. All of these share one central sentiment which is basically, if you can't be perfect why bother?

I no doubt, will from time to time go some place, use something, say something or do something that some might consider, not vegan enough, not pure vegan, whatever you want to call it. I don't know when, where or how it will happen, but it will. If being present online has taught me anything its that everything piss off someone. I am sure this will happen not because I am careless but because I am human and imperfect. This will happen because while people want to paint the world as black and white, its actually gray.

So why bother? Well, the best answer I can give is a parable I heard as a child, perhaps you have heard it too, it is about a little boy and some star fish and goes like this :

One morning a man is going for a walk on the beach, every morning the beach is scattered with starfish that the tide washed up. As he walks he sees a little boy who is running about picking up star fish and throwing them back into the sea. The man approaches the boy and says “Boy, why are you wasting your time trying to save these star fish you cannot possibly save them all.” T he little boy continues what he is doing while saying to the man “You are right I cannot save them all, but I can save this one” he says throwing the star fish back into the sea.

What the moral of this story is, to me. Is that every positive step counts. No you can never be perfect and no you cant save them all, but just one is worth it, every step counts. So everyday my goal is to do a little more, be a little better, and cause the least amount of harm possible while existing in our imperfectly gray world.