Raw Freedom

People who don't know what raw veganism is like would be amazed at how free you become. I don't mean 'free' in the sense of 'sociopathic' or 'free of morals'; it's a different kind of freedom. It is the freedom to follow your ethics; the freedom to stand up for them; the freedom to protect others. Then, also on the raw side, there's the freedom to follow your dreams; the freedom to be 'spiritual' (connected with nature etc.); the freedom to eat without feeling guilty; and the freedom to have confidence in yourself.

Yes, you may have some or all of these things already... as I did. But they were massively enhanced by my going raw where they, or some of them, were created by my veganism.

Freedom is an amazing thing. Most people would think of these things as duties; they're not. If you think of them as duties, there's something screwy with your mindset - probably that you don't really think you have the freedom to do these things and you must struggle against X obstacle (society, food availability, etc.) in order to fulfill them. And there's another very freeing observation: other people can go as they will as long as they don't hurt anybody.

I have met some rawists who think that non-rawists are inferior... of course, the ones who chide them, the 'more-tolerant-than-thou' people, aren't much better. Similarly, some vegans think that nonvegans are inferior. They aren't. They just don't get it yet.

That's it. They just don't get it yet.

There's a very strong feeling, in raw veganism, of having 'gotten it'. You feel like you really understand what humans were meant to be. We don't, of course, but we know that whatever humans were meant to be, it sure as hell wasn't eating the SAD, driving everywhere, getting diseases left and right and hunting animals with rifles. (Actually, hunting animals at all, but I digress again.)

You do start to get it, after a while... just how good you could feel. Just how high you could fly. That's where the freedom comes in: it is the realisation that you, yes, you, can do damn near anything that doesn't break the laws of physics. You may need to get the support of other people, even thousands or millions of other people; you may need to gather your courage. But you can do it.

That's what hope is all about.

And hope, despite what some may say, is freedom if you act on it.