The passage by Goska hit me deeply, especially the line “The problem is not that we have so little power. The problem is that we don’t use the power that we have.” This is kinda bizarre, but this immediately made me think of my journey with my diet.
We as people are empowered in the decisions we make, and I think sometimes people forget that even in the mundane purchases of clothing, random goods, and FOOD, we are using our influence and power to put money into an industry or company. Ever since I learned of it at the age of 16, I’ve wanted to be vegan, and eat less animal products, due to the immense amount of cruelty and suffering animals go through in the factory farming process. There is also incredible benefits for the environment by choosing to lessen the meat/dairy industry.
I’ll admit, even though it’s 4 years later, my journey to reaching that diet/lifestyle hasn’t been easy. But these readings reminded me that we cannot rob ourselves of the power we do hold. Many of us have the ability to at least control what items we choose to purchase, how much waste we produce, etc., and even those choices can feel incredibly empowering. Overall, I just now feel even more excited to continue living my life according to my values, and making the decisions necessary to support those causes.
I loved reading your response! I think your idea is so key about not robbing ourselves from the power we have, and once we identify that power and make choices based on it that can empower us. I am grateful you shared your journey and the impact the reading had on you. I love the idea of identifying values and identifying the power we do have, to DO something with those values.
I really liked your connection to eating vegan with the reading. I am personally vegetarian and try to reduce the amount of dairy I consume with the idea that that I will eventually try to go fully vegan. When people ask me why I do it, I simply reply “for environmental reasons.” Sometimes, this brings out prompting of “oh, but the animal’s already dead so you might as well eat it” which I roughly translate to “one person doesn’t make a difference.” I really liked how you pointed out that we can’t take our own power away in being able to choose our lifestyles. Even if others don’t think that you are making an impact doesn’t mean that you aren’t making a difference.
I definitely agree with your statement about how powerful that quote is. Not only do we not use the power that we have, I also think that we have issues using our power in the best ways. I think that it is hard for us to do the most good because we dont know everything. Also I think its really cool that you went vegan.
It’s def important to remember the powers we have, and even though it might not be enough to solve the huge problems, it’s still something. And we can still do good things with it.