And by successful I mean it's gotten the most attention from strangers. Wore it into town on Saturday and two people actually read it out loud! Cool. One exchange went like this:
Store owner filling in at cash register: "Food is to eat, animals are to love. Pause.
So I guess that means you don't eat meat?"
Me: "Yeah, I don't touch the stuff."
Owner: "And you love pigs?"
Me: "Yes, and chickens and cows too!"
Unfortunately at that point another customer needed serving and the conversation ended, but I like to think that a seed was planted. Or at least, that the owner has now met (if he hadn't before) someone who doesn't think other sentient beings should be thought of as food. And I wonder too if a gentle message like the one above is more effective in challenging typical assumptions then a more aggressive "meat is murder" motto. I mean, while I have no problem with thinking of meat as murder, it's the kind of slogan that is more likely to make people want to defend their habits methinks. It raises walls, instead of helping to tear them down.
As I may have mentioned in the previous post, the beauty of t-shirt activism too is that it puts a human face on what may be stereotypical notions of who's vegan. In my case, that face belongs to a forty-something female who has given her laugh lines an honest-to-goodness workout, and who isn't bothered by prematurely grey hair. Also, while in some ways it's a real pain to be living in a small rural-based town; maybe it's even more important here than in big cities to demonstrate who vegans actually are.
p.s. more positive response from another clerk: "I couldn't help but notice your t-shirt: eat, eat, kiss, kiss -- that's SO cute!"
