I Gave Up Fishing to Become a Vegan
From Animal Issues to Tell Youth The Truth

by Dave Warwak

I am embarrassed to say, I was a fishing guide for many years. When I gave up fishing and became a Vegan, my Friends and old Customers wanted to know, why I no longer am a Fishing Guide. So I posted the message below on my old Fishing Forum. Here it is;

Everyone wants to know why I am no longer guiding. Put on your thinking caps my friends and rest assured everything will be all right. And in reading, better understand my words, you will, when I say,.

"Saw it in the far off distance, a wavy haze melting the ground. I chased it down and grappled the machine. Now I'm coming home" Warwak

My life's work has always been the continuing pursuit and inquiry of the underlying reasons that contribute to the rampant apathy in our society. Why don't people care? Why don't people care that no one cares? I always cared, or, so I thought. Turns out, the things we dislike the most in others are often just a mirror of our own demons. These irritants are amazingly hard to see in ourselves as if they were far off in the distance; but, are too hard to ignore in others, as they appear too close and personal. "So, I smashed those mirrors and now the whole world is here for me to see" (Jimi Hendrix Quote). In more understandable terms, I self-actualized myself - approximately 2 percent of the population are self-actualizers. Other people who were self-actualizers - Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Aldous Huxley, William James, Spinoza, Goethe, Pablo Casals, Pierre Renoir, Robert Browning, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jan Addams, Albert Schweitzer, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Joseph Haydn among others. You get the idea. In addition, I know my place and purpose in the world and I cannot imagine myself out fishing, when I can devote my time creating positive change and helping my fellow man.

Turns out my search for the reason people don't care is connected with the relationships between people and life on earth, as well as, addressing respect and responsibility issues within the hypocrisy of those who raised us, ignorant themselves of the legacy of smoke and mirrors that I deny as our fate. We simply had no idea, nor did our parents, or theirs. It just kind of happened. The World is in a lot of pain right now and is dieing fast. All attributed to the hereditary ignorance that has become the great evil in the world that most people cannot see. It is right here, right in front of us, every day. It is like a wavy haze that melts the ground, like a type of fog or smoke that clouds our thoughts - it starts when we are very young and grows, as do we, until it becomes part of our history, part of us, part of our being. It is hard to let go of a part of ourselves, especially when it is most of that we have been taught. So, now, we have smoke and mirrors? Yikes, life really is a bitch! Yes, but, only if we look the other way, all the while pretending to see clearly.

The internet will help man in our evolution to reverse the deadly course we are on. With knowledge comes less ignorance. When one knowingly participates or when one knows full well all the implications and does nothing with the information, inflicts harm on us all, of which, the silent individual's pain is the greatest, as complicity is a far worse crime than ignorance. Complicity and ignorance are the roots of the world's worst evils. It is just the way we are raised in America. It starts when we are too little to know any better. The more hypocrisy is experienced, the more transparent it becomes. Before you know it, we grow up, never even noticing. The spirit deep inside us still knows reality and is unimpressed and dissatisfied at the sight of our plastic world everyday. The moon cries in loneliness as today's child chooses to stay inside glued to an electronic box, compartmentalized inside a temperature controlled façade, instead of, going out in to the world, exploring caves, swimming with turtles, discovering nature's beauty and perfection, caring a broken wing, feeding fish, finding real friends, friends who help the child as much or more than the other.

It is our inner-self, the child, who seeks safe and quiet refuge deep inside us. We suppress the child in us by adopting systems of thoughts and actions based on the perceived desires of those in control. Some suppress themselves with a passive aggressive revenge type of apathy in response to being told, "No" their whole lives; while others suppress themselves in a sort of loyal attempt to satisfy the masses with so many compromises that conflict with the child's ideas of what is just and right, so many, over the years, more and more, all leading to apathy. The child in us cannot be beguiled and sees this as a loss of self. Not much matters after that, as we pick and choose to suit our desires with no regard for others, nor knowledge of the pain and sorrow we inflict on others and ourselves. It is this vision that is the root of most of our problems. Respectful people do not pick or choose who or what to be respectful of. They have no choice but to respect everything.

The root of apathy is invariably due to the absence of attachment to the natural world and self in childhood. The natural world seems to be more abstracted, distant, and foreign everyday, more and more, all the while, Man's façade grows cheaper and more generic and ever taller, everyday, taller and taller until the sun is blocked out of the sky. It is happening right now, we are witnessing and participating in it and no one seems to notice or care to. So, there it is, the solution enabling cause of apathy. Get this, the solution is, and has been, right in front of our faces for a long, long time. Yes, I chased it down and grappled the machine. Now, I'm coming home.

The solution involves early childhood education centered around real respect, real responsibility, and the reality of our World here and now. A different way of living and experiencing the world that will enable and guide people to their fullest potentials and in doing so, crumble much of society's deep despair and misery. This is Man's next evolution and is just beginning in other parts of the world simultaneously and yours' truly is part of it here and now. This same solution will end certain types of cancer, virtually wipeout heart disease, hypertension, strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, and just about every other disease particular to us here in the western world. Most will fade away. This same solution will put an end to war, cruelty, and starvation. The same solution even heals the ozone layer and reverses global warming. So, now you can understand why I would feel strange neglecting such things in favor of fishing.

Yes, I still enjoy the water - VERY MUCH SO! You might find me down by the water's edge in the Bay lost in deep meditation. Yes, I meditate, am a vegan, polyphasic sleeper, self-actualized, writer, philosopher, poet, humanitarian, artist, musician, educator,.. So there it is, straight from your very own x-guide's psychobabble ramblings.

Peace, Dave

Return to Animal Issues