Everyone is Someone’s Child

By : Edward LaRose

In 2008 I became a father to a beautiful little little boy named Isley. That first night as my wife took some much needed rest, I held my son in my arms for hours.

Immediately I felt awareness come over me. I was aware for the first time what my father & grandfathers experienced & my mother & grandmothers. Both my wife and I grew & changed from that moment forward. We both stopped being self centered & placed our centers on our child. Dreaming about our child growing we began to think of our own mortality. We both knew we needed to clean up our diets.

First we stopped purchasing soda & junk food. A few months after that we stopped eating red meat. It was my wife who consistently brought up the idea of going vegetarian but I always shot it down. My argument was since I was the one who cooked for our family & I didn't know how to cook for a vegetarian diet it could never work. I was not prepared to stop cooking all of the meat based meals that were so much a part of my Italian heritage.

Then late one night after my wife and son had both fallen asleep I went online to read about the days events as I often do. For some reason on this night I began to look up information on vegetarianism. I came across a link to the film EARTHLINGS. I put on my headphones and sat alone watching it in the dark room for awhile. In one scene, I will never forget it, 2 cows are placed in a room to have their throats cut & blood drained. After the first cow was killed the second cow had an expression of terror & fear comes into his face & eyes. I recognized that look, I had seen it many times in the eyes of my son when he would awaken alone & afraid in the dark. I thought about how in those moments of fright I would throw my arms around my child & love him. Then suddenly I realized that this frightened cow is also someone’s child. I never ate meat again after that night.

Please visit www.edwardandkritzialarose.com to connect with Edward LaRose

PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.