It was 1972 when I started my vegetarian journey. I was at WelMet summer camp at age 12. (Howard Stern was a counselor and kitchen boy there with his first radio show!) A fellow camper put a fork in a round deli meat slab and said “baa baa." It was leg of lamb. I saw for the first time that it was someone’s leg. From then on, I couldn't eat meat. I could no longer eat someone’s body parts.
In September after summer camp, I saw the film: “Bless The Beasts and the Children.” It’s about boys freeing bison who were to be killed the next day. The boys were trying to save the bison from extinction. That same month, after watching Bless The Beasts and the Children, I learned to play the song Dona Dona on the guitar. It’s an Israeli song about a calf mournfully going to slaughter.
All three of these things inspired me to stop consuming meat. Still, I ate dairy and fish, not seeing the connection.
As an athlete, I had psoriasis, arthritis and migraines. At 19, I had cancer cells burned out. At 21 I finished college and went to visit my mother’s vegan sister, my Aunt Glory. While staying with her, I learned to eat vegan and I started to juice fast. This was in May of 1981. Aunt Glory and her son were living with her best friend, Heart Phoenix and her kids. I learned a lot. After six weeks of living with them and mostly fasting, I lost weight and felt great. For my first year of being vegan, I mostly fasted eating raw vegan almost exclusively between fasting.
I never had cancer cells appear again. Migraines were gone. Pounds dropped off. My psoriasis lessened dramatically.
I’ve been vegan ever since.
Through my Aunt’s friend Heart Phoenix, I learned about Heart's sister’s place called Gentle World, which is the longest running vegan intentional community, and a non-profit educational organization. It was Gentle World’s founder Light who had convinced my Aunt Glory so long ago, to “please not eat his friends.”
I’ve been involved since 1981, and while I hope the world quickens its pace towards veganism, I've seen veganism grow tremendously. In 1982, Dr. Michael Klaper visited and joined forces with us. What a game changer for the world! Gentle World published two books written by Dr. Michael Klaper: Vegan Nutrition: Pure and Simple, and Pregnancy, Children and the Vegan Diet — the seminal works on vegan nutrition.
The Gentle World team of volunteers has also written and published two recipe books (The Cookbook For People Who Love Animals and Incredibly Delicious, Recipes for a New Paradigm) as well as producing two vegan Celebrity Banquets, and operating a vegan restaurant on Maui, Hawaii. Over the years, we have also rescued and saved many animals; flown banners; given countless seminars and cooking demos; demonstrated and marched for animal rights; taken on the role of executive chefs at Animal Rights conferences; taken over hotel and restaurant kitchens for catering; and consulted for other vegan restaurants.
In Gentle World, visitors can see the wealth of information that exists with people who have been vegan for over 50 years. I am happy to be part of an organization that has been trying since the late 70's to veganize the world! www.gentleworld.org
For the past 15+ years, I have also helped with the NY Coalition for Healthyschoolfood.org. And I’ve been involved with FarmUSA.org and the World Peace Yoga Jubilee. Before the jubilee, I produced the first World Peace Diet retreat with Will Tuttle.
In my 41 years as a vegan, so much has changed! And we’re just getting started. Join us!
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