Sunday, May 13, 2012

Bridges

Happy Mother's Day! I won't be seeing my kids today, but I'm proud as can be to be their mom. I'll be celebrating veg-style here, by vegging out a bit, cooking some good vegan food, and maybe going to a movie with my darlin' Rick this afternoon.

I'm also celebrating another little blogging triumph. My post from the other day, Eating With Friends, will in the spotlight on BlogHer on Friday, as as featured member post on the Food page. I just love it when I get these little bits of attention. Sure, it's great for my ego, but that's not what's important. The cool part is that it brings more attention to what I'm up to out there, which is raising non-vegans' awareness about the many benefits of a vegan diet, and also, as my friend Paul Graham says, "building bridges" between people of all kinds, who eat all sorts of food. Can we all share a table and a healthy plant-based meal and still be happy? Of course we can! And I'm so grateful to the editors at BlogHer for helping me get the word out.

To take bridge building a step further, I have a loosely formed idea to host a Positively Vegan Potluck at my house once a month. It will be for vegans, omnivores, and everyone in between, but all the food will be vegan. The idea is to encourage anyone who's even the tiniest bit interested or curious to try going vegan - for just one meal a month.

I think it might also work to hold a mini class an hour or so before the party. I could teach some simple recipes and techniques, build my teaching confidence, and maybe have Rick catch bits of it all on video, so we can share it online too.

Mostly, the potlucks are meant to be fun and social, with no vegan evangelizing, no propaganda flyers, and no judgement. But in the process of finding and making vegan recipes, I have a feeling a certain amount of self-education will happen automatically. And once people start to learn more about all the reasons behind the current and growing vegan-mania, and taste more and more delicious vegan dishes, well, who knows... maybe some people will go all crazy and start having a vegan meal every week, or adopt entire Meatless Mondays into their homes, or dare I hope, go all out vegan someday. But reaching my mind that far into the future is pointless and silly. Basically, I want to throw a party, and I want everyone to have fun and to be well-fed. So the wheels are turning, and the planning is in the works. I'll keep you posted.

Happy Mother's Day to all of us, and our animal friends, living together on our Mother Earth.


Thank you, IDA Blog, for the lovely picture, and for your Vegan Earth Day Outreach post, which reminds us that, "A 2010 Report from the United Nations International Panel of Sustainable Resource Management strongly urges a global shift to a plant-based diet to both feed a hungry world and greatly reduce environmental impacts like global warming."