Dear Jane. I fully understand as i have been in the process of « opening my eyes » to the unreal cruelty towards animals with articles, videos, documentaries, etc. The process of « exiting denial completely » is extremely painful, as you end up exhausted by the amout and extent of cruelty AND how essentially very few people care enough to bother pondering where that bacon / hamburger / etc comes from… on top of this « indirect cruelty through denial of reality », there is the pain felt about « why / how » these cruel people exist and sleep at night… it is a heavy burden to carry…

But in the end, you must deeply ponder and live by the very wise words of the saying: « O Lord give me the courage to change what must change, the strength to accept what i cannot, and the wisdom to tell the difference. »

You will not eradicate cruelty from this world. Not now and not within your lifetime. Nobody will. But each little contribution will eradicate cruelty in the long run. A typical human and animal lives less than 1 second in cosmic time. The Universe is 15 billion years. Earth is 5 billion years. There are at least 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 planets in our Universe. We come to Earth like those flies that live 24 hours… let go!! Without denial… letting go is NOT denial, and is also NOT inaction. If you want to help animals and humans, do it, yes, by all means, get invilved and make that small difference… from a place of love. And i know that part is incredibly hard, because when you become very aware and informed, you tend to hate humans and humanity, because the supply of cruelty, cynicism, and apathetic denial seems to dwarf everything that shines… it seems that way, but it’s not quite like that…

Social norms have evolved a great deal. 5000 years ago, slavery was very standard. 2000 years ago, walking the streets of Rome and seeing fields of people crucified and being eaten alive by birds was standard. 300 years ago in the USA you could buy humans on an open market and dispose of them as you wanted. 70 years ago, people were « dry castrated » in UK for being gay and women could not vote… these are all things that have been eradicated.

I grant you that all these great improvements did not much extend to animals, but it is starting to make its way…

You needed to become aware and « confront reality » and the « cold facts. » ok: mission accomplished. Now, it is time to help yourself by shining again, which will help others, including animals. Get involved with animals rights if you want, but remember the big big BIG picture, remember that you are not helping animals or changing anything by watching videos of cruelty… the people doing these acts are lost and blind. We are clueless about the grand mystery of life and why all this cruelty is there. We just don’t know. Maybe we (you and i) were the cruelest animal and people torturers in another life and now we are feeling the need for purification? Who knows!

Add a lantern to the darkness in the world by shining with love, knowledge, and compassion… for all humans, all animals… all life… and yes remain in « action and reality », but at the same time… « let go »… regards. P.