How to Change Minds: 3 Principles of a Healthy Conversation
It’s been around 2 years since a memorable conversation about veganism that permanently changed my approach
My friend’s friend, let’s call him Alex, visited my town and we all sat outside. It was a sunny day. When it got dark, we went to grab a bite to eat. There’s a cozy little place near my friends’ apartment, so that’s where we went. I ordered my usual “vegan number two,” durum with falafel. I don’t remember what others ordered.
When we sat down, Alex turned to me and said, “So, what’s the deal with you? How come you don’t eat meat?”
By then I had been vegan for about four years, so I’d experienced my share of these conversations. People asking — sometimes out of genuine curiosity, sometimes from the sense of wonderment, and sometimes because they just can’t grasp it — why is it that I turned my back on meat? And my answer is as it’s always been: I did a month-long experiment without meat. After the month was over, I was feeling both physically as well as mentally so good that, even though I still liked meat, I couldn’t imagine going back. And so I never did. The whole philosophy of not harming animals and the environment has evolved from this simple, visceral experiment.
