Vegan Pledge Days 15 & 16: The big job of saving Princess Toadstool

Cool vegan: one who's awesome and does not bully her family into following her vegan lifestyle. One who has found the perfect balance of following her own personal path and allowing her family to choose theirs.  I know quite a few of these people, including one hobeast and one vegan pledge mentor, and I value their insight and their rejection of the Vegan police force.  That is the type of vegan I'm trying to be.  It's tough to STFU about it, though.  I've had to stop myself a few times.  BAD vegan (i hit myself on the nose).

Uncool Vegan:  this is the vegan I'm not trying to be: I thought it was wildly irritating when I called an old work friend (who is psycho raw vegan--in the nicest way, possible) and said, "guess what? I've made the change. I'm a vegan too! We gotta grab lunch together!!" Clearly, I was excited. Hence the exclamation points. And she said "Well, I guess." "Um, what?" I replied, "Have you defected? Are you no longer vegan?"  Answer, "well, no, but how can I call myself vegan when I drive to work everyday on LEATHER SEATS?"  (let your voice get higher and higher as you read that sentence)

FUCK. there's vegan levels in the vegan kingdom???? it's like freakin Mario 3--which I've never beaten--am I never going to reach level 8 super vegan? Will Bowser and his 8 children continue to stop me? Apparently so because, hell a raw vegan is better than a regular vegan, but then there's a super vegan who doesn't buy anything or touch anything or breathe in anything remotely animal-esque, and then there is super master level 8 animal rights protestor vegan which is basically untouchable--these are the people doing the dirty work so I can sleep at night.

I'm living in the vegan world, but I'm Mario with a limited time only vegan Luigi. We wear leather shoes, carry leather bags, and sit on our leather chair.   Even though we bought all that shit pre-vegan and I feel really guilty about it, it probably only gets me to level 3.  Maybe level 4 if you count our rescue of Cathy the rabbit  (who shit all over the floor and was stupid) and Kevin the cat (who I  have a co-dependent relationship with).

I hope over the years to incrementally get to level 7--and probably will stop there: I've got Luigi to focus on and feed; I've got more shitting rabbits, and emotionally unavailable cats to find, adopt and love. But I'll leave the big job of saving Princess Toadstool up to the super vegans who absorb the realities that most of us can't bear to hear.

Kudos, the world is a better place because of your efforts, but let's always strive to keep it cool. We can catch more flies with honey...damn it, see? I told you I was level 3.