Old Friends

Went to a friends 60th birthday party on Sunday, caught up with alot of old friends that I haven't seen for a good ten years, some have changed alot and then some, who haven't changed much. What I found interesting was how much I had changed, not in looks, I'm not concerned about that, but the path one takes in life. Fifteen years ago I became a vegetarian so my interests have evolved along that path into animal rights, veganism, etc. It's ten years since I left the suburbs to live here in this beautiful country town of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, and the 7 acres we live on and, in our wonderful nearly finished mud brick home that we have slowly built over the last 5 years. Sunday was for me, an eye opener, we could still be suburbanites if we hadn't taken a chance and changed our outlook on life. My vegetarianism was the beginning or should I say Peter Singer's book on Animal Liberation was my awakening. Not one of my old friends has travelled with me on this path, which makes me rather sad, even Global Warming isn't part of their concerns. Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not really complaining, I'm just amazed that in the suburbs things don't change too much, so how are the issues of Global Warming or Peak Oil going to be tackled when issues of keeping up with the Joneses are still important. How do we get the messages across to these people, when even being a vegetarian is still unusual.