Over the years, I have accumulated quite a bit of knowledge on various topics related to health (mainly out of necessity, not curiosity). When my family and I went vegan, I also began learning about topics related not only to veganism but to environmental issues in general.

  Since I enjoy using my personal blog to share details and information that isn’t suitable for T.W.N. – it being an author site dedicated to my literary work – I’ve decided to do a mini series called “The Challenging Reality”. I’ve chosen this name because while many have jumped to the conclusion that everything with a vegan label must be bad, there are also those who’ve jumped to the conclusion that everything with a vegan label must be good. These posts will not be a comprehensive study of cruelty-free companies but are simply meant to be an unbiased, realistic view of products and practices that claim to be “vegan”, “vegan-friendly”, etc. Even those of us who have been doing this for years may assume too much sometimes – I know I did.

  While there isn’t room to cite all the source material, I will provide links to some of it on the “Cruelty-Free Life” page. As you might have noticed, it’s been down while I make revisions. It will go back up after the first post is released on Tuesday, November 23rd. There will be a few additional links in each post.

With this mini series, I hope to not only enlighten but also encourage those who might resent vegans, vegetarians, meat-eaters, or anyone else to take a second look at a few factors that may have influenced their personal choices. I’ve observed a steady increase in people online who claim to be vegan, claim to care about the environment, claim to want to help find and implement solutions to help the planet – and then go on to shame, hate, criticize, and publicly humiliate other individuals for their choices. We should know by now that forced change is no change at all, and I often wonder where activism ends and hate campaigns begin. At what point does educating the public turn into shaming those responsible? And if we say the end justifies the means, how are we any different than those who use the same logic to justify behavior that’s clearly unacceptable?

I’ve also noticed some ignore strategy when it comes to saving the planet. They want to fix everything all at once, right now! It seems they’ve let their emotions run their mission, hence the burn-out, anxiety, frustration, and desperation that many are feeling. As my mentor, Alura, says, balance in all things is key. When I began trying to apply that to all areas of my life, I was amazed that some of my past choices no longer made sense, even though my motives had been good. So, let’s try to achieve some balance and take a second look at the deceptively complex process of caring for the planet – and each other.