Was I the
good guy?
In the movies, it’s easy to spot the good guy and the bad guy. In real life, most of us assume we’re the good guy, and that the harm is coming from someone else. But so much of the hurt in the world comes from people thinking “it’s not me” or “one person doesn’t matter.” As the late, great Jane Goodall reminded us: that’s 8 billion people, all doing nothing. The small things we do, or don’t do, every day add up, for our planet and for animals, and we often don’t see it until it’s too late.
When that realization hit me, I had to ask myself: Am I the good guy, or the one who does nothing? Will I be proud of how I lived? Those questions changed everything. I couldn’t look away anymore. It was time to get off my butt and do something. If one butterfly can change the direction of the wind, surely I can make a difference.
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So I changed how I live. By 2015, I’d spent a year living as a vegan (despite my love of cheese), protesting, petitioning, donating, and volunteering, both locally and overseas. It still didn’t feel like enough. The rescues I work with need real financial help, while their people work tirelessly for little or no pay. I also wanted to give others who care a new way to help their fellow Earthlings. So I put my pencil to work, and Art for Animals was born.
If it troubles you that animals suffer, you’re not alone. From factory farms and fighting rings to breeding mills, abandonment, animal testing and poaching, it happens every day, all over the world. But there’s hope. It’s a challenge we can overcome, together, one portrait at a time. What a happy world it is when we can make a difference just by making pretty things together.
Always a friend, Theresa