Labor Day Reminder: We Have No Time to Waste

Summer’s over, and just this once, it wasn’t the humid, steamy, sweaty season I loathe each year. It flew by in a blur of dog nausea, a sharp decline in visits to the gym, a resurfacing of some vegan t-shirts I haven’t worn in over a year, and some lazy days off work, spent at the bookstore or in a movie theater or at the bar with friends.

And here we are, Labor Day. The end of barbecue season. I have no sense of smell, and every Memorial Day I feel lucky for this lacking sense; I don’t smell animals cooking on grills throughout the neighborhood. I try to avoid the meat case at the supermarket; I ignore the sales on hot dogs and hamburgers in the weekly circulars. I see no need to celebrate summer with disembodied pieces of cows and pigs marinating in barbecue sauce. I think back to the last barbecue I attended – which was, in fact, at YDV’s Ohio headquarters, over a year ago – and I remember the tofu and seitan kebabs well.

We are headed into autumn. In some of our neighborhoods, leaves have already started falling. Halloween and Thanksgiving will be here soon, and fall will proceed with a blur of its own. Perhaps it will include apple cider, spiced tea, pumpkin picking and comfort foods. Perhaps it will be an early winter.

Sometimes it’s hard to reconcile the speed with which time takes the weeks and months. It’s moving so quickly. “Endless summer nights” seem to only be in the old Richard Marx song. And really, it’s a good reminder – we don’ t have time to sit on our laurels when it comes to changing the world.

As the lazy days of whatever season you’re living go by, at whatever speed you feel they do so, don’t forget the animals that are being bred, born, and exploited. They don’t have much time, and they need you to speak, to fight, to shop, to vote on their behalf. Whatever the holiday, wherever the celebration, remember them.

Photo credit: Erik Fitzpatrick