So today* marks the ten year anniversary of me going vegetarian. Big part of my life that I never have tried to write about. Or have I? While I don't think I'll ever write a "go vegetarian" or "save the animals" poem, I think a lot of the same values that have lead to me going and staying vegetarian have also lead to some of what shapes my art. The summary of what lead me to turn vegetarian when I was thirteen, and what makes me stay the course ten years later, is "it's no longer necessary to kill for survival, so why do it, when we can get all our nutrients and protein through healthier forms that are better for the environment, shared with a belief that all life is valuable." By looking back at my motivation and not its manifestation, I see that motivation has continued to inspire my thought processes as they develop in art.
The two biggest examples were my creative writing and theatre theses from senior year. The Creative writing thesis focussed on using poetry to explore themes of monstrousness with hopes to humanize. In them, King Kong is a slaughtered would be lover and a cow fears for the life of her son, wishing him to be inspired by the human gouging bulls of Pamplona. While those are probably the two closest to the "vegetarian poem" in the manuscript, this continued sense of "all life is valuable" inspires the treatment of the humanity in the 'monsters' and the monstrous sides of 'humanity.' In the theatre thesis I explored the myth of Prometheus, the godlike Titan of Greek mythology who in effect gave his life to care for and save humans, even if they were a helpless life form in comparison. Interesting how the more we change, the more we stay the same.
To life, L'Chayim!
Jason
* by the time of this posting, yesterday June 21, 2012
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