Why Cinnamon Oats?

As I write this out here on Border’s second level balcony a girl is talking to her dad on the phone. She sounds happy and excited. I’m not eavesdropping; she’s just not using her inside voice. Apparently, she’s lost a bunch of weight. Her pants don’t fit anymore. Her skin has totally cleared up. No more acne. Why?
“Since I’ve been on that new…sort of diet. You know, since I’m vegan now.”
So awesome.
“I have a friend that works at a vegan restaurant right next to my work; so I’ll eat, like, tofu and soy ham and a plate full of vegetables. It’s all so good.”
Wow. I can’t tell you how much I love to overhear that. I guess this whole vegan thing is blowing up. I’m feeling a sense of possibility, of hope, that maybe people are starting to recognize a few things. Things like maybe there’s a better way to feed ourselves than with the dead flesh of animals raised and slaughtered in the most sickening conditions. Like maybe what’s good for our bodies is also good for animals, for the planet. Well maybe so.
But there are still so many people here accustomed to eating all kinds of meat and not much else. There are still so many places that serve it; and so few that offer the healthy, delicious, vegan stuff I love and crave. But few is better than none. Few is already an improvement. The question we face is how to make a few into more than a few, into a lot. The question is, “What do we do now?”
One thing we can do is boost the vegan meme, keep the idea in currency. I felt great when I heard that girl talking to her Dad on the phone about all the wonderful things that have happened to her and how happy she is eating a fully vegetarian diet. I felt great because she felt great. I wanted to give her a high five or something. Her indiscreet family phone call was my inspirational bolt from the blue. I decided that Cinnamon Oats isn’t going to be just about movies. It’s going to be about movies and vegan food. (You’d think I’d have figured that out from the start: Cinnamon Oats/Cinema Notes. I guess it took me a minute to understand what it all meant. Now I got it.) So in addition to movie stuff there will be recipes and vegan stuff and maybe sometimes both of them together. Sound okay?
Well I’d read it.
And to that girl on the phone with her Dad, I hope you read it and like it and keep on loving that good vegan food.