Minority Opinions

I wish we could start the world over again and make all the laws.

There should be a constitutional amendment to protect animals.

My friend Alex was killed by a drunk driver while he was running on Key Biscayne training for the New York City marathon. He was only 27. His death always reminds me that tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us. Tragedy doesn’t knock. I try to live every day as if it’s my last.

When you focus on helping others, you will feel grateful, fulfilled, and grounded. When you focus on yourself, you will often feel quite the opposite.

Sometimes I look in the mirror and wonder who I am and what I’m doing here.

I am in awe of how the human body functions.

Everyone dies. Not everyone lives.

I can understand how people who know nothing about the horrors of modern factory farming continue to eat animals. I was one of them. I can’t understand how people can read a book like The Food Revolution by John Robbins or see undercover videos revealing the cruelty on farms and not make any changes in their eating habits. It doesn’t compute. Sadly, I think it says something about a lack of compassion that exists in some people. The same day I learned the truth about factory farming, I changed forever.

I hate the sound of motorcycles and people whistling but not as much as I hate the sound of an animal in pain.

I get iritated when people wish themselves a happy birthday.

Too many people spend their lives trying to convince other people they’re happy. Look at me on vacation, look at my new car, look at me smiling with my significant other, look at my house, look at my clothes, and look at me. Such acts are usually a sign of unhappiness. People focus too much on themselves.

The richest life is a humble and selfless one. I wish people would stop showing what they have and spend more time helping others who have so little.

If you ever visit a farm sanctuary and spend time with a turkey, I bet you will never eat another turkey.

I would like to make smoking in public places illegal unless they are designated “All Smoking.” Wherever I go, people are blowing their smoke in my face, polluting my lungs, and ruining my fresh air.

Focus on bringing happiness to others and you will feel happy.

Sometimes people try to pet my dog and their hands don’t look clean so I lie and tell them he bites. They say, “He bites? He doesn’t look like he bites.” And I reply, “He bites.”

I’ve worked so hard for so many years to put myself in a position where I could have enough money to help non-profit organizations and people who need financial support. It feels so good to have finally reached a point where I can provide that support in a small way. I can’t identify with people who constantly want. To be alive and free and to have your health is already so much.

When I look into my dog’s eyes, I see the eyes of every helpless animal on earth.

The most humbling experience of my life was standing on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon looking at millions of years of natural erosion of rocks. The sheer size of the canyon reminded me how small I am in comparison to the world. When we have a problem, it is often all that exists in our mind. Much more exists.

Everyone always wants something new — the new iPhone, the new car, etc. I can’t identify with them. I keep phones and cars until they don’t work anymore. People sleep outside on a line to buy a phone. Imagine if more people showed that kind of dedication for something that actually mattered.

If you think about how much pain and suffering exists at every moment, it will help you keep your own problems in perspective and inspire you to help reduce the pain and suffering of others.

I’ll never live long enough to touch the amount of lives I want to touch or to give as much as I want to give and that’s why I feel such a sense of urgency to do as much as I can now.

I hold people to such high standards that I am constantly let down. Sometimes I just stay inside so I don’t have to face it.

Living life to the fullest means different things to different people. It shouldn’t mean doing something for yourself every chance you get. Living life to the fullest should include giving as much as you can and doing everything you can to make the world a better place before you leave it.

The day I began living out my true potential as a human being is the day I realized my life is no more important than any animal.

Sometimes I think about 9/11.

Nothing reveals the ego more than people who post endless pictures of themselves on Facebook.

Animals and people both have the same right to inhabit the earth freely.

It’s hard to imagine not being alive anymore.

The greatest state of being is the absence of physical and emotional pain. Only when we are in these states — when we receive news of the tragic death of a family member or friend or have kidney stones, for example, do we tend to appreciate our normal state of being. That’s human nature. The key to living a grounded life is to realize that when you suffer severe physical and emotional pain, you will give anything to be back complaining about standing in a long line or sitting in traffic. Try to remember that if you’re not in severe physical or emotional pain, your life is still a lot better than most other people’s lives.

We’ve got birthdays all wrong. Instead of celebrating ourselves, we should give to others on our birthdays as a sign of gratitude for being lucky enough to live another year. It’s such a “look at me” event as constituted. I don’t accept any gifts on my birthday. I don’t even like it when people wish me a happy birthday. For what? Who cares. I don’t follow silly cultural norms.

People tell me they can’t have a particular food without butter, mayonnaise, cheese, sugar, or some other fattening food. I’m grateful I’ve never missed a meal. I’m grateful I’ve never known hunger. I wish people would show more appreciation for food in its simplest form and not insist that everything taste like an oreo or they won’t eat it.

My father recently told me he won’t be around forever. That’s hard to imagine.

The world could be such a better place.

The definition of failing to make a connection: People who brag about saving spiders in their house while eating abused and slaughtered pigs, chickens, cows, and turkeys. How can you feel so strongly about a spider and not care at all about a pig? I’m proud of you for putting the spider outside; please consider showing the same compassion for all animals.

My favorite people aren’t famous; they’re just great.

Watch the movie War of the Worlds. That’s what life is like for billions of animals every year. We are the aliens to them.

I always found Art Buchwald rather fascinating so it’s no surprise that my favorite quote belongs to him: “I have no idea where I’m going but here’s the real question: What am I doing here in the first place?”  ― Art Buchwald

About these ads