Virtuous Vegan
Greta L.
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I've been vegan for a few years and there are several questions I regularly receive that can be frustrating to answer. I also happen to be a hopeless advice column enthusiast. This fictional Dear Abby exchange with "Virtuous Vegan" (intended to satirize many people's perception that vegans are holier-than-thou egotists) is born of my own exhaustion over answering these questions. It can be truly tiring (and isolating) to justify a dietary decision, and I've been shocked at the reactions I receive for merely mentioning I’m vegan, ranging from defensiveness to borderline aggression. While this piece pokes fun at unthoughtful questions, truly nothing makes me happier than when someone engages me with genuine curiosity. Additionally, humor is a tool I use in my creative writing that has helped me improve my own curiosity. I hope that in bringing levity to people’s perception of vegans, I can pass that same curiosity on.
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I see creativity as a powerful tool to improve our collective curiosity. I believe that to recast an idea in a new and unexpected way helps us reexamine the beliefs that guide our worldviews -- this curiosity can translate to deeper questioning, humility, and compassion in how we interact with others.
