A meal of meat
The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass … – Isaiah 40:6
I scrupulously wipe the final gobbet of flesh from the plate, lifting it to my mouth with an index finger, rolling it slowly across my palate, savouring the last delicious morsel before consigning it to the enzymes and acids of my gullet.
At what point does it become part of me? This miracle of biological process. This relay baton of life. Passed first from the sun to the green leaf of a plant. Packed into a grain in the forlorn hope of reproduction. Absorbed into the body of a battery hen where it is broken down and rearranged into new protein, different DNA. Now feeding my gut flora even as it releases nutrients through my digestive membranes and into my blood. Soon that sunshine will be captured by my own cells. My muscle, my fat, my neurons. Is its energy already flowing from my fingertips into these words? Has some of it now become part of you?
And what of the suffering that has been transmuted into my pleasure? Could the chicken have enjoyed eating the grain as I enjoyed eating it? A bird born and bred to be consumed, living its stunted life alone in a tiny cage even as its ancient genes cry out for forest and flock. Could it have known elation and despair? Yearning for something that was not to be? Or just a grim, grey emptiness that could only find relief in the terror of the slaughterhouse. How much misery in that tasty mouthful?
To live is to suffer. To live is to inflict suffering. Even in the midst of pleasure.
I roll the words around my mouth like pieces of well cooked corpse.
Carnage. Carnal. Carnivore.
Neurodrooling 
Reblogged this on Jennifer Buergermeister and commented:
Irony. I was JUST thinking about this exact thing while driving this morning. Such a beautiful synchronicity. Now I feel like I know you! 🙂
Jenny
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sMiLes.. My FriEnd.. Cabrogal..
first oF all.. to get the empathy and
compassion paRt out of the way.. now..
yes.. nice to you see you blogging again
after around 5 months.. hope you
are doing well.. Oh.. the Asperger’s..
now.. back to what your blog post..
post inspireS in me now..
as EW=F.. Emotions
times Words=Force…
Words that inspire
E M O T i O N S
make change..
in terms of
H U M A N
Productivity
and Creativity..
Give and take.. we give
and take in terms of Energy..
And when we enslave other species
and domesticate them as is the plight
of the Chicken in the walls of grey prisons
we really FucK uP.. per se.. as we domesticate
ourselves.. and perHapS.. end up using Super-Walmart
carts to move our Fried Chicken eating bodies instead
of Free Ranging the lands of FoRaging in Hunting and
Gathering in the bliss that comes with miNd and BoDy
Balance.. as to be domesticated is to lose one’s BoDy
and miNd in the process in Human way too.. OFTen..
iN Dysregulation oF Emotions and
Disintegration of senses
from the time we sit
in school to
small work
cubicles
now to get the
all you can eat fats
and sugars that oh.. feel
so.. so good.. for an animal
wHo is hUman who is evolved
for Intermittent Gratification and
not the instant gratification that comes
from the Human who has lost the call of
the wild.. no different than the wolf-dog from
that Jack London Book.. To no longer have
a luSt for the HUnt of liFe.. yeS.. in all the ways
that comes.. is to die a chicken’s life in a slow
torture of a grey walled prison that truly most
humans today are no more aware of than
the chicken with his/her free grains in her
or his chicken/human grey cAge.. anyWay..
the Good news is..
iF wE understand
that we too
are born to
be wild..
we do something about it.. now.. all nows..
and that my friend is why.. pArtLY.. every Thursday
Night now.. i make it a religious ceremony.. at age 56
to Dance Wildly and oh God.. full of lust/love with women
whose hips and breasts taste of the reproduction of liFe..
always out of my grasp of course.. as a happily married
man who FucKinG hasn’t forgot his Wild thing and uses
the science of his human nature to keep the productivity
and creativity going ..oh God…so strong the day after dance…
As you may remember.. Aleister Crowley was all in to this
thing called sex magic and sure.. sex magic
wasn’t well understood from a scientific
point of view then.. as it wasn’t then
something that was appropriate
to study.. Queen Victoria
and all of that.. you know..
but science shows now
that a balance
of lust and
love is at
the core sTilL of
human productivity
and creativity.. so sure..
enhance the lust part of
life without having the instant
gratification for it.. in other words..
the hUnt of liFe iNstead of visiting a
brothel.. makes the Karma of action
and consequence always of human libido
where LL=P+C.. yes.. Lust times Love
equals Productivity plus Creativity
and of course when that comes
in a positive way.. the science
of Karma says the positive
consequences
come in more
than one
way.. now
and to make
it into an instant
gratification game
of the domesticated all
one can eat grains chicken..
or the domesticated all you
can eat Fried Chicken or the
Domesticated all you can do
porn.. is to shoot oneself in
the chicken’s foot.. also
iT caN bE to understand
our Natures
in LiVinG iN
balance
with
Nature
NoW giving
as much noW
as taking and for
humans with their
cognitive reasoning
discipline with a healthy
mix of empathy and compassion..
and no.. don’t forget the hunt for life
in Moving.. Connecting and Creating that
for human spells a Balance of lust and love
in life.. and yes.. killing animals reduces empathy
and compassion for flesh and blood all around..
that is one part of domestication.. i care not to
change.. as it is my empathy and compassion
in terms of love.. that makes me a gentleman
no matter how much the blood sinks
to the lower part of
my body
in the
free range
dance of life..
but i have to admit
when the sexiest breasts..
and hips move before me even
when they are my long term dance
friendS it can be a little hard to do this..
a balance though.. in the luSt and loVe of liFe in this
case giVing much more than taKing makes liFe fUn..
@least to me.. and all i know/feel is.. the girls are smiling..
a LoT so they must be enjoYiNg it a little bit too.. @ least… NoW
bottom line.. iS..
to lose the
Libido for
the hunt of life
is to die aS iN life.. no
matter iF iT is a chicken
or a human who has lost
tHeir free range of MoVinG
CoNecTinG and CreAtinG..
beHind desks and cubicles ..
mY FriEnd.. oh to live.. FREE..
tHeRe’s noThing liKe iT..
in animal terms..
oF humans sAMe as
chickens for the most pArt..
are most definitely SLAVES…
NEO.. sAdly sees and feels tHeir
pain most everywhere he goes..
except for the active danCeRs/SinGeRs in
the hAlls of Free Range HUman LiFe..
for those who don’t drink..
and pretty much
thAT
leaves
NEO.. now
My FriEnd..
to watcH as the
others slaveS to their addictions..
to instant gratification in all
the ways that comes
in behavioral
and substance
priSons aS well..
i’M addicted to lUst
and loVe but in BaLanCinG..
my friEnd.. FOR FREEsT LIfE..
as NEO SinGS and DanceS on
and aS alWays.. thanks
for the
EW=F..
DS=a lot of words..2..
DANCE times SOnG..
and no.. ‘the word’ didn’t come
first.. always dance then song..
and whatever comes after Movement
then Sound.. MS equals all that is and GOD.. sAMe..
MS=G..
and perHaps
distance.. space
and time is all illusion..
and
illusion
is Real too..
SeriouSly.. my friEnd(s)
last night.. who was/were the
sexiest wom(e)an(S) in a cRoWd
of hundreds of girls.. at least then
from what i could see and feel with
shadeS on.. probably had no idea
how much she(they) would inspire all of this.. (LL=P+C) the next
day.. the advantage my friend.. oF ALwAYS GoinG.. hoMe.. ALLONE..
And
DanCinG
And SinGinG WiTh
ALL that is iN BaLanCinG
ForCE.. NoW.. AKA GOD..:)
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Is it better to be a vegetarian then? This way You won’t have to worry about the chicken slaughter in the process of providing you food 🙂
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Maybe it is. But it’s not for me. I like meat.
I could go on about humans beings evolving for omnivorous diets and the problems with getting sufficient iron, B12 and B6 in a vegetarian diet. Or the fact that an ecologically balanced farm would produce small amounts of meat along with the vegies (though far less meat, proportionately, than most Westerners have in their diets). But all of that would be the same sort of lame arguments vegetarians use to justify their own diets.
The bottom line is no matter what you eat, wear, drive, own or do you’re causing death and suffering. There’s probably consequentialist arguments to be made for lifestyle choices that may (or may not) minimise your impact on those you share the planet with, but I ain’t a consequentialist.
Mostly I think it’s important to be as aware as possible of how every act ripples out from you and effects everything else and to try to follow your heart as informed by that awareness. Sometimes we can see obvious consequences of our potential acts we would want to avoid but mostly we can’t begin to understand the full impact of what we do.
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If you did know the consequences, and/or the “pre-quences” so to speak, would you avoid acting in a certain fashion? Would it make any difference? Are thinking people – and I use the term advisedly because I do believe that not all folks use their noggins in the same way or care to — somehow less free to act (or just as free or even more free) because they are “in the know” about such consequences? These are just some of the questions that arise for me. It may be that you like eating meat, andante more power to you. I agree humans are omnivorous.
Frankly I LOVE the taste of meat. I also love animals. On a more, shall we say, um, abstract level, I do not know them very well, insofar as I have not personally taken care of many more than a cat or dog (I know a fair amount about tropical fish, and some birds etc, but no, I have not been fortunate enough in my life to have farmed animals or otherwise gotten down and dirty with them). On the other hand, I care about any being that has a nervous system that responds to pain and other stimuli, and yes, this extends to some extent to plants. But if I thought about that too overly, I would starve, wouldn’t I? (I think I might)…So I don’t eat animals, at this point at any rate, making a political statement until all animals are granted the right to live in healthy and decent environments for their span of life…whatever it is.
I am NOT at all against killing animals for food, don’t get me wrong. If you went out and hunted a deer or some overly populous wild — something or other, I would gladly indulge my bloodlust and hunger for MEAT…But to eat that dead cow or pig that has suffered all its life chained to a post or knee deep in its own shit, that seems to me to be the definition of obscene, for me, at any rate. No, I could not tell if it had been happy and frolicking in the woods or chained up all its life, I could not tell by the taste of its meat, I am not psychic etc but that is why I abstain.
Until I KNOW that all animals are treated well, and live happy enough lives, and are humanely killed, as they would be enough in the wild, or at least have the chance of it, I remain a vegetarian by choice and politics only. I don’t pretend it is a natural way to be, it is just my protest stance. And I would never ask others to take a similar one if it did not suit them.
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Boy, doesn’t that question open a can of worms? Or, rather the whole universe of existence. But I guess any real question, properly considered, does that.
To answer it to the best of my ability I’d need at least a whole blogpost – if not a whole book. It raises all sorts of subsidiary questions about the reality and limits of free will, the nature of cause and effect, the concept and practice of morality, the limits of empathy and compassion, etc, etc.
The trite answer would be “Yes”. Different knowledge implies different circumstances and demands a different response. But to have anything like complete knowledge of causes and effects relating to even the most trivial decision would suggest godlike powers that are beyond my comprehension. I’d be a completely different kind of being. So I can’t begin to imagine what form my response would take. That’s one reason I think consequentialist moral codes such as utilitarianism are staggeringly hubristic and conceptually bankrupt.
But yeah, if I were to go veggie or vegan it would be as a political statement directed at the livestock industry. Not because I believed it would somehow reduce the sum of suffering in the world. And certainly not because I think it would make me a more moral person.
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BTW, readers of this blog will know I love rabbits and keep them as house-pets.
I’ve also eaten a lot them.
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TOO MUCH
For excesses of spirit,
when the body walks away
without you, and you
discern the auroral mist
your favorite vegetables give off
so that you can’t eat
what feels too much like friends,
for body/mind disjunctions
springing you free of the world
before you’ve had enough,
for these and other dis-eases
irreconcilable with the life of the body:
Buy the biggest steak you can find,
the slab most resembling a body part,
and eat as much as you can, eat
until the matter of your body
matters and you think not
of the rarified ether
of higher mathematics,
but of the heavy visceral sleep
digestion demands, how what rises
needs also to fall, enthralled
by gravity and the bodily truths
flesh insists upon: that not everything
can be taken on faith,
that the world’s solid facts
are all nouns that name the gore,
body and soul, all
we can ever be sure of.
By Pamela Spiro Wagner in WE MAD CLIMB SHAKY LADDERS (CavanKerry Press, 2009)
Just thought you might enjoy my take on the subject! Cheers
Pam
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Yeah, I do like your take on it. A lot. Corporeal embodiment seems most strongly anchored in the gut, don’t you think?
Did you know that a commenter on my blog sent me your poem When I lose you without knowing that I follow your blog – or even that you blog at all?
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