The Rollerblading Vegan

One of my very favorite things to do as a workout is rollerblading.  It’s a workout I do by myself (mainly because I don’t know many others who rollerblade lol) and I love the time it gives me to reflect on anything and everything.  It’s a form of meditation, as weird as that sounds.  The bike paths I rollerblade on have some amazing views and I do my best to take it all in as often as possible.  One thing I’m always cautious of however, are all the little creatures who are currently on the same route as myself.  I do my absolute best to avoid rollerblading over them even though I know it’s impossible to dodge every single one.  This is a prime example of how and when vegans aren’t “perfect”.   We as a species are bound to cause harm to many non-human animals simply for existing.  This is an argument I hear often from non-vegans who claim vegans think they’re perfect and claim to not harm any animal.  The huge difference between incidents like rollerblading or even walking for that matter, is that the harm is UNINTENTIONAL.    Unintentional harm is inevitable.  Farming vegetables causes unintentional harm, construction causes unintentional harm, even driving your car causes unintentional harm (most likely) every time.  These are unintentional deaths simply because humans exist.  INTENTIONAL deaths directly harm others simply for our benefit.  The most obvious being the billions of intentional slaughters that happen around the world every single year simply for our pallet pleasure.  The second most obvious being the intentional killing of the animals we kill to wear and test on. 

 Sheesh, just typing this makes me realize how vain we can be as a species.  One thing we can all strive for however, is to limit the intentional deaths as much as possible, wherever possible.  Most of us live in civilized communities where survival situations are few and far between.  Meaning we have (healthier) alternatives when it comes to food and clothing so there is no reason why everyone shouldn’t be striving to live a vegan lifestyle.  It’s the only way we can limit the intentional deaths (aka murders) of all the innocent non-human animals we share this wonderful planet with.