A Reason to Vegan.

These past two weeks, my girl, Reggie, and her daughter, Marlee, have been visiting the temple. Reggie's a fellow New Yorker, what a relief! There's just something about New York humor that I love, especially Jewish humor. Reggie's all about it, being the old bat that she is. Reggie has been vegan for over 15 years and sugar-free for the past five. Vegan isn't just what one excludes from their diet, it's a lifestyle. No animal products what so ever, no leather, no tallow, no exceptions. She ditched the sugar for health reasons but the environmental impact of sugar cane on coastal ecosystems (http://environment.about.com/od/pollution/a/sugar.htm) what to speak of its historic and contemporary role in economic colonialism are reason enough to avoid it. It was inspiring to have her vegan consciousness around the temple. I really needed her to wake me up. Striving to be compassionate for all conditioned souls, this is my responsibility as an aspiring devotee of Krishna. I'm tired of being complacent and lazy.

In high school, we used to chant the Serenity Prayer after the ol' pledge of allegiance.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

In a time when an infinite number of institutions and agendas are working hard to control our lives, its empowering to stand up and resist. Purify our hearts, while purifying our body so that we can help others to do the same.