Four months ago, after years of sitting on the fence, you finally became a vegetarian. You dragged your ass on that decision for far too long, try to be a little more decisive in the future would you?

You made this change because you couldn’t reconcile the prolonged suffering of sentient creatures for your momentary satiation at dinner time. You did it because this kind of farming is devastating to the planet.

You may reach a point where you will consider switching back to eating meat so I’m writing this to (hopefully) give you pause. I’m writing this down so maybe these reasons will stick in your head. Next year when this pops up on your Facebook feed (assuming Facebook still exists) I hope it will serve to act as a reminder that you did this for solid, carefully considered, ethical reasons. And if you need a reminder of these reasons go back and check out Sam Harris, Yuval Noah Harari and Peter Singer.

Your life was undergoing a lot of change in 2016 and 2017 and you’ll almost certainly be a different person when you read this again but I hope you’ll have the strength to carry on with this decision. Maybe by next year you’ll be eating cultured meat and maybe another year or two later society will be embracing it as well. You can’t change the world Shawn but you can keep trying to give it a nudge.

Keep walking, keep meditating, stay vegetarian, be kinder to people, be kinder to the earth, be kinder to yourself, and try to live a good life. Be a better Shawn. And give Jodi a kiss for me.