Good day, bloggers!

   One thing before I get to what I have to say, I’d like to make an announcement: it’s Ben’s birthday today! Felicitous wishes of another year of life passed to you, cherished acquaintance. I’m sure he’d appreciate it if you contacted him in some way and wished him a happy birthday, but only if you mean it.

   Now, on to my topic for today.

   There seems to be a mathematical equation involved in everyday life. It affects me, you, everyone around you, those we interact with, etc. It is like the Matrix: it is all around us, penetrating everything. Here it is, first as an equation, then the explanation: f(O) = 1/M+K. The strength of an opinion is inversely proportional to the openness of a person’s mind and the amount of knowledge they have. In other words, stupid people (or people with very little seeming knowledge) have the strongest opinions, and evidence cannot sway them. (I hope I did the equation correctly. I’m sure someone will tell me if I didn’t.)

   There are people in my family, on which side I refuse to say, that are of the opinion that Valerie and I being vegan is an evil thing to do. We hear 3^rd person accounts, from reliable sources, that we are seen as ‘mentally deficient (my interpretation)’ or deluded, or weird. Of course, these same people won’t come and talk reasonably to us. No, they have to vehemently disavow and distance themselves from us in order to keep themselves...clean, somehow. If we make something to eat, inevitably the question arises ‘Is it vegan?’ If it is, they won’t have anything to do with it. Never mind that we have gone to great effort in order to make something suitable for EVERYONE, and not just the flesh-eaters. Nope, it is classed as trash and dismissed just as quickly.

  The infuriating part is that the people who hold these opinions are the most vocal in their disdain of anything different, i.e. they are the loud-mouths in the family. So, rather that others coming to Val or I with questions about veganism, they hear the blabber-mouth and decide that she is right. These people are a closed-minded lot, but extremely sure that all that they say and do is correct. There is no second chance for us to make yummy food for them in order to show them that they are mistaken that vegan food is better than lesser food., because they are staunch in their bastion of thought.

   It also doesn’t matter that I could quote scripture and verse to them in order to support my position; no, I learned in the mission field that fighting verbally with someone in order to prove a point is useless, at best. So, I am left with no other alternative except to blog-post, and simmer in silence.

   However, the people who are the most open-minded are the ones who are more educated, and have had opportunities to encounter situations that help them to see things from a different point of view. Seeing things from a different perspective is called consideration, isn’t it?

  My challenge to you who read this, and to myself, is to educate ourselves so we can be more understanding of people. Rather that making an immediate blanket dismissal of something, find out first what the motivations are for the behavior, then see the effects of the behavior, and then judge accordingly. After all, ‘By their works shall ye know them’.