How to seize it or else, what to do about it…?

Do not worry, I won't write a paraphrase on Neruda's story "Where to go with it?". However, a similar rhetorical question suits the topic. You know, you have been trying to stick to a healthy lifestyle for some time; you first stop eating meat, then fish and eventually give up eggs and dairy. You finally live to your liking and you feel that you've just saved not only the Earth but the entire Solar System.

Even so, it's often a hook. Most likely, you do not live on a desert island like Robinson Crusoe, but in a marriage and with a few offsprings. And it's exactly them who wish to rescue neither themselves nor the planets. They don't want to give up their well-done burger and soft eggs. Not to mention chips, fried cheese, or the dearest grandmother's cookery. It really is a difficult situation, and nothing can help. Nothing. No explanation, insistence, exhortation to see all the fearsome videos of the slaughterhouse or eggs/dairy industry. The result is still zero.

You can wave with the civilization mortality statistics at the younger generation and support it with the world-known China Study. Those with a heart attack or stroke are nearly as far as Prague from Alaska. And when you manage to lure your kids to mashed potatoes with cauliflower (they'll get themselves their dose of crap anyway), your counterpart is still buried deep on the other side of the barricade. Now, grandma, what do we do about it? Or better, how do we seize it?

Actually, I am very lucky to have daughters. I am in no way trying to offend men here, but I think women are more sensitive, especially when it comes to violence. They show more compassion and do not adhere as much to their enjoyment as men do. My daughters followed me in vegetarianism and soon veganism; starting from the age of 11, in fact. Yet the man resisted and held a firm position on the barricade of carnivores. At the same time, he had and still has a very receptive attitude towards ecological behaviour, and he often supported zero waste projects within his company.

A few years ago, there was a popular American vegan activist Gary Yourofsky and his lecture entitled "The Best Speech You've Ever Heard...". I must say it's true. I don't even know how I managed to do it back then, but I asked my husband to watch Gary's lecture. I produced no noise and was simply tiptoeing around him. He made it to the end, then stood up from his chair and said, "So I'm a vegan now." At the time, it sounded as sweet as the most romantic love confession. A lot has happened since then. My husband has become an enthusiastic vegan spreading the idea. Both his endurance and health are constantly improving. The osteoarthritis in his knee has disappeared along with many other "symptoms" of ageing.

An example for the older generation, Dr Colin Campbell, professor of nutrition biochemistry at Cornell University and author of the China Study, is yet to be mentioned. I had the honour to attend his lecture in Prague two years ago, when this 82-year-old man, with his wife, was bringing vegan education to Europe. According to his scientific medical study, veganism is the only way leading to health. I strongly recommend you to read it, it's really worth it.
So the advice is simple. A man can only learn from another man. And for my man, it was Gary Yourofsky.

Sincerely yours,
Mirka MyRaw

The China Study:
https://knihy.abz.cz/prodej/cinska-studie-2

Gary Yourofsky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5hGQDLprA8