Answers to Quesions on Veganism

As a new vegan I have a lot of questions and often I am searching the web for answers. I know about the International Vegetarian Union, which I go to often to find recipes, but I also found on that site an FAQ that has many good answers for a lot of questions, many of which are similar to the questions I have. In it there are answers to questions about such things as common foods, definitions, and ingredients such as "Is 'gum base' in chewing gum vegan?" I didn't know this, but apparently a majority of chewing gums might not be vegan which means that I'll need to throw away the three packs of Trident gum that are in my jacket pocket, and I'll happily do it, too. Then again, my gorgeous, non-vegetarian wife might balk at this and scold me for throwing away perfectly good gum. So here is a question, would giving my wife the gum be "vegan"? That is, would it be the vegan thing to do? For me this is a philosophical question, and I have many such questions about veganism. Perhaps in my next post I will attempt to answer some.