crisis of faith?

[Guest guest]

Year ago, after I had become a vegan, I watched the passing

of a vegan friend - an elderly lady who had encouraged me

to become vegan.

 

Of course, we expected vegans to " get the health benefit "

from veganism, regardless of their reasons for being vegan.

 

Well, this lady had founded several animal rights organizations

in Boston - CEASE, ARC, etc. and had been honored upon

her retirement from the Federal Reserve Bank by the

New England Anti-Vivisection Society (www.NEAVS.org)

as New England's " Humanitarian of the Year " .

 

I remember sitting with a couple who later became active

organizers in the Boston Vegetarian Society, which I had

helped to put together a year or two later, as I became

more adept at selling the idea of vegetarianism and

of vegetarians getting together as local vegetarian groups.

 

However, this lady began declining in her health,

immediately upon resigning from the Federal Reserve.

What had happened? Had she lost the will to survive?

Hardly. Work wasn't her only meaning? Organizing was.

Or was it?

 

I'm sure that seniors -- even vegetarian and vegan seniors -

have health and emotional issues that the majority of

us in the activist community don't recognize, although

we will eventually.

 

I watched this lady slowly lose strength, fail to appear

at meetings and protests, and eventually end up in

one local hospital after another.

 

" Maynard, don't complain about her lack of commitment.

She's a very sick woman> " I was told. -- And she was.

She was dying of cancer in her late sixties.

 

I was floored. How could a committed ethical vegan

die of cancer? Wasn't there a health benefit from

avoiding meat and animal products? I struggled for answers.

 

And silence can be cruel to the chorus of human angels

watching on the sidelines, searching for answers of their own,

however respectful of the person suffering. I knew that.

 

But as I watched this lady slowly shrivel up and die,

watched her gradually lose her ability to recognize

even friends like me - that hurts. Yes, and she DID

shrivel up and die, very horribly and painfully -

a fellow vegan, and I was in my 20's - just out of Harvard.

Why?

 

Then her closest friend in life, a fellow vegan who

had herself persuaded this lady to become vegan,

confided in me that yes, this lady had suffered

for over twenty-five years as a vegan -- with cancer

in remission -- and no one knew.

 

Yes, she died as a vegan, but being vegan

had ALSO allowed her to live and quite well.

 

Yes, I've seen vegans with heart attacks and strokes -

even vegans who consume heart healthy soy -

and in all of THOSE cases they had what insurers

are fond of calling " pre-existing conditions " .

Anyone understand now why insurers want to

factor our pre-existing conditions and why

comprehensive access to medical coverage

can be such a complex thicket of issues?

Issues may NOT be simple.

 

Maynard S. Clark

 

 

 

At 10:10 PM 6/12/00 -0400, Yoel wrote:

>M & M,

> I gather that some of us (not I) think that vegans are immortal

> and not

>subject to mortality's realities. What if the man simply had a cerebral

>hemorrhage (as one possibility). Being vegan is not going to guarantee

>against that. It may only guarantee against diseases that are induced by

>bad foods and bad life style. There are still real things that happen. And

>often it is just heridity and/ or personal factors irrespective of diet. I

>believe that, whatever the facts are in the case of our late Jay Dinshah,

>we may not seek to perpetrate a myth that veganism defends against all

>things that happen. Vegans are human and are animals.

>

> Yoël

>

>At 07:38 PM 6/12/00 -0400, Emanuel Goldman wrote:

> >Maynard,

> >I expect a burning question on the minds of many veg*ns is the cause of

> >death. Many are holding their breaths to hear if his diet was at all a

> >factor. And if so, if supplementation would have made a difference. This

> >is unfortunately a highly visible death at the age of only 67. If you can

> >find out any information, your list members would be anxious to know.

> >Manny