Interesting thing about eating meat willingly outside of ritual for the second time last night: I was haunted by the dozens of animals (actually, pigs specifically, because pork chops) with whose bodies I had refused to fully engage, leaving sizeable chunks of their holy flesh (just as holy as mine, thank you very much, which is also destined to be food for someone) attched to the bone to rot in trashcans. See, when meat was something I did to beings who didnt know my face and I theirs, I would often not try very hard to consume the meat. If it was stuck in a crevice or a corner that was difficult to reach, or if it was just clinging really hard to the bone, I would leave it. Pork chops, with their T-bone were the worst for that for child-me. The thing is, this was refusing to actually engage with the body of the animal, to interact with and notice and honor the way it was constructed. The bones of the animal, the structure of the animal, the shape of the animal, the strength and beauty of the animal, was nothing but a carrier of food to me, to be ignored and discarded when its form (so important to the animal in life) made my consumption of the meat more difficult than I felt like dealing with. What disrespect I dished out to the dishes before me! Last night, I did everything I could to bring every piece of the bit of rabbit I was eating into me, working each bone desperately, for what might have been ten minutes or more each, to make sure everything came to me. To ensure that I knew the shape and strength of that bone. And then I struggled again to get to the marrow inside the small little rabbit bones. Which is difficult, by the way, and rather unrewarding. But I knew that bone, and I let as little as I could go to rot. is that selfishness? Is that a refusal to feed the community of other beings around me that would have and will consume the left-over bits of meat, the scavengers and decomposers who are our constant guests? Was it a violation of xenia, and of all the rules of hospitality? Maybe. perhaps. I cannot say. But what it wasnt was alienated from my food. It was a blossom of My Food is My Friend.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 16:53:12 +0000
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