Furever

Interesting to see the great lengths people will go to keep their companion animal in their lives.

The bonds that form between humans and their companion animals, the dimensions of grief people experience when they lose an animal, and the lengths to which they'll go to preserve more than a memory...FUREVER.

FUREVER is a feature-length documentary that explores the dimensions of grief people experience over the loss of a companion animal. It examines the sociological evolution of companion animals in the U.S. today, particularly their position in a family unit, and how this evolution is affecting those in the veterinary profession and death care industry. With interviews from grieving animal guardians, veterinarians, psychologists, sociologists, religious scholars, neuroscientists, and the many professionals who preserve an animal's body for their devastated clientele, or re-purpose an animal's cremains in unique ways (taxidermy, cloning, mummification, freeze-drying, and many more), FUREVER confronts contemporary trends, perspectives, and relevant cultural assumptions regarding attachment, religion, ritual, grief, and death, and studies the bonds that form between humans and animals, both psychological and physiological.

Sixty-two percent of Americans have a companion animal, and they spent a total of $52.9 billion on their companions last year. Many judge animal guardians who choose to memorialize their deceased companions as unbalanced, yet religious or cultural rituals for deceased people often seem unusual to outsiders. 

How "real" is grief for a dead companion animal and who decides what kind of grief is acceptable, or appropriate? 

Rather than pathetic or morbid, these animal guardians embody America's muddled attitudes toward death and dying, touching on our collective fear of aging, and how that fear is shaped by the shifting influences of religion, technology, family, and money.

Labor Day Vegan Recipes

Summer Noodle Salad

Dressing

1/2 cup of rice vinegar
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoon agave

Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Let sit for an hour.

Salad

1 handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
1 handful of basil leaves, chopped
2 green onions, diced finely
1/2 red bell pepper, julienne
1/2 yellow bell pepper, julienne
1 cup of shredded carrots
1/2 cup of toasted peanuts
1/2 lb cooked soba noodles

Prepare all the vegetables, set aside. Once the noodles have cooked, rinse with cold water and drain. Once the noodles are cool, add the vegetables and peanuts. Mix the dressing again thoroughly then add to the noodles and vegetables. Stir until well combined and serve.

Tempeh Peanut Satay

1/2 cup grated coconut
2 teaspoon agave
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup tamari
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 lb of tempeh, steamed for 20 min
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon sherry
1/2 teaspoon vinegar
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup plain soy yogurt

Marinade:
Puree orange juice with only half of the agave, coconut, tamari and cayenne pepper in a blender. Cut tempeh into 2 cm cubes and add to marinade. Set aside for 1 hour.

Peanut sauce:
Blend remainder of agave, tamari and cayenne pepper together with the peanut butter, sherry, vinegar, garlic powder and soy yogurt. Refrigerate.

Thread tempeh cubes onto 4 skewers. Grill tempeh over medium-hot grill 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Brush kebabs with marinade and sprinkle with remaining coconut. Serve the tempeh kebabs with peanut sauce.

Caipirinha Cooler

1 lime, quartered
1 1/2 tablespoons ginger syrup
1 sprig mint
2 ounces cachaça (or rum if you can't find cachaça)
1 quarter-sized slice raw ginger

Muddle lime with ginger syrup and mint. Add cachaça, shake and pour over ice. Add a raw ginger wedge for garnish.

Virgin Recipe :

1/2 diced lime
1/2 small diced lemon
1/2 small diced orange
1 sugar cube
ginger ale
fresh mint

Place the fruit in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add the sugar cube and a dash of ginger beer. Muddle to release the juices. Strain into a glass filled with crushed ice. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with mint.

Piña Colada Popsicles

1 can light coconut milk
2 cups Pineapple juice
1 banana

Pour ingredients into a blender and puree. Pour into Popsicle molds and freeze at least 4 hours.

Tomato and Herb Salad

1/3 cup of lime juice
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 extra virgin Olive oil
4 large ripened tomatoes
1 cup of parsley
1/2 cup scallions
1/2 teaspoon salt

First make the dressing:

lime juice, salt, sugar, and oil whisk together.

Cut tomatoes into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Drizzle tomatoes with about two thirds vinaigrette (let it sit)

Combine herbs and scallions and toss with remaining vinaigrette.

You can also grill the tomatoes lightly if you choose.

Mom's 'Meat' and Potatoes

vegan sausage

1 can of organic potatoes, drained

1 can organic string beans, drained

Put potatoes and green beans in to deep dish. Cut or crumble the soy sausage into the dish.

* add as much as you like.

Scarab Beetle

I added to my good luck collection today. I went to a Portland Museum and found this good luck Scarab Beetle:

The Egyptian Scarab Beetle was used as an amulet or a good luck charm by both the rich and the poor in Egypt. A depiction of a scarab beetle were worn as pendants, bracelets, rings and necklaces and was believed to hold strong magical and religious properties. The name of the owner was inscribed on their flat bases to ensure that protective powers would be given to the wearer. Scarab pendants, bracelets, rings and necklaces were often made of precious or semi-precious jewels such as carnelian, lapis lazuli and turquoise. The colored glass favored by the Ancient Egyptians called Faience was also used to create amulets. Faience was a strong greenish blue glass-like material, consisting of crushed quartz, lime and alkali, which first made in Predynastic Egypt.

Real mummified beetles were buried with the dead. 

The Scarab is modeled after a variety of dung-beetle (Scarabaeus sacer). The industrious dung-beetle placed its egg in dung and rolled the dung into a ball to be heated by the sun. This created an association with the life-giving powers of the sun and the sun god Ra. Life also was centered in the heart so the dung-beetle amulet had powers to protect the heart. In death, the scarab protected the deceased person's soul from being eaten by Ammit the Devourer--a part-lion, part-hippo, part-crocodile who guarded scales of justice in the Egyptian afterworld. Being protected from this fate would certainly be good luck.

Today, people continue to look to this ancient symbol for good luck. It can be worn near the heart or displayed in many other ways to continue it's 4,000-plus year history of bringing good luck. 

Cancel Notice

I decided to cancel my Twitter account. In order for it to work for me in the way I wanted it to, Twitter would have taken too much time out of my life and my life is a bit more precious than that so, Bye Twitterverse. 

I've also noticed people tend to find my blog via Googling related words or from my visits to forums and other blogs. Very rarely are people coming via Twitter.

I'll keep my Facebook account, as I have new plans there and promoting animal rights, but I LOATHE navigating there....



***Update: 9/8/2013: I've decided to reactivate my Twitter page! I'm looking at it in a different way now...focusing on that so it's all good now--Hey! FOLLOW ME! I always follow back!

Jains Connecting Traditional and Contemporary Living

The ancient Indian religion of Jainism, a close relative of Buddhism, has an adherence to nonviolence that forbids eating meat, encourages days of fasting and places value on the smallest of insects.

Now younger Jains, who resist the elaborate rituals of their parents, which include meditating 48 minutes a day and presenting statues of idols with flowers, rice and a saffron-and-sandalwood paste, are trying to reinterpret the traditions of their religion for 21st-century American life. They are expanding the definition of nonviolence to encompass environmentalism, animal rights and corporate business ethics, volunteering alongside other faiths, learning to lobby through political internships and youth groups, and veganism. 

Veganism--a step beyond the vegetarianism that the faith requires--is on the rise among young U.S.-born Jains, but younger Jains find it otherwise difficult to follow traditional rituals, with modern life and its excesses. 

Jains believe, for example, that even microbes in the air and water are sacred life and any action that impacts other living things--such as driving or using electricity--can add to bad karma. Yet many Jains are top doctors, lawyers and businesspeople, who use computers, cellphones and drive cars — and so they are increasingly seeking a compromise between their faith and practicality.

For the most part, elder Jains support the modified approach to 21st-century American life, but some worry their children will miss a deeper understanding without completing rituals that are so detailed that some Jains carry a small booklet with illustrated instructions. For instance, worshippers must shower, remove their shoes and change into loose-fitting, clean garments before approaching statues of 24 idols and must don a white mask to avoid breathing or spitting on the marble figures.

The faith’s Western evolution is being talked about openly and with greater urgency now that the small expatriate community that arrived in the 1960s has established itself by having a national umbrella organization, youth groups and more than 100 temples, including an enormous one south of Los Angeles.

Vegan is a Way of Life

Bruce Friedrich, senior director for Strategic Initiatives at Farm Sanctuary said this on his Facebook page on August 1, and asked for comments--which he got over 200 replies.

"I just wrote this on a comment on my wall, and I'm wondering what others think: "I'm comfortable with vegan referring exclusively to diet. The most frequent use of the word is on foods and cookbooks, I'd guess, where it is only referring to the lack of animal ingredients in food. And for the vast majority of people who think they know what it means, 'vegan' is a diet term. People fighting to identify vegan according to its original meaning are not likely to win that battle, I'm pretty sure. It's the nature of diction that word meanings change according to common use. Fighting it will be an exercise in frustration, I suspect."

I know some people feel with what seems to be an almost religious zeal that "vegan" must adhere to the original (purely animal rights, no leather, wool, silk, etc.) meaning, but surely that train has long since left the station. Is this really a battle worth fighting? Don't we have more important things to worry about? What do you think?"

I think to redefine the word vegan is crazy! And I'm sure the 2 reasons how this problem started as to why mainstream thinks veganism is a diet only are:

1. The vegan community some years back got lazy in their animal activism and just started mentioning the diet part at least most of the time in educating people so people just assumed by what most vegans talk about--the diet part--is basically what it means to be vegan.

2. Mainstream, on their own, simply started to embrace the diet part only in hopes of making it easy to be called vegan because--hey!--it's such a cool word that everyone should easily be called vegans. {rolls eyes}

One vegan has said vegans should be called, "Animal Rights Vegans", and let the word vegan by itself be for as to define a diet only.

I don't like this AT ALL.

Veganism means a lot more than "animal rights". Animal Rights can be defined in various ways anyway; it's simply too vague. Or saying "Cruelty-free Vegan" would be a misnomer too, as being vegan is more than just not being cruel to animals.

Animals should not be used in ANY way--THAT is how vegan is defined.

Always was and always should be.

By horribly diluting the word vegan, we make light of this social justice issue. Defining vegan as just a diet is a huge insult to this social justice word! Vegans have no other word as definition. We claimed that word and it's definition a long time ago and it should stay that way in how it's been originally defined.

Bruce asked, "Don't we have more important things to worry about". This IS one of the important things! His lame psychological BS does not intimidate me in how I feel about this subject.

We vegans CAN stop this attempt to redefine veganism by placing on all our animal rights blogs, articles, websites, cookbooks (which I think is part of the problem--too many vegan cookbooks makes mainstream think that's all veganism is about), on ALL our vegan education materials, on top of the page, explicitly explaining what being vegan truly means. And when we talk to others we should make damn sure people have a clear understanding that veganism is more than just what we put in out mouths. And we can explain to them in a way that doesn't overwhelm people.

Vegan is NOT just how we eat....

Vegan is a way of life.

Some Thoughts on “Veganpalooza” from Veganism is Nonviolence

As my regular readers know, I am against such social vegan meets like "vegfests" and "animal rights conferences", and this blogpost, titled: Some Thoughts on "Veganpalooza" tells it exactly like it is--preach it sister!

http://veganismisnonviolence.com/2013/08/14/somethoughtsveganpalooza/