Awesome weekend at my parents house. I fed a baby calf and this mama hog. I really love hogs. Its crazy, bc i am vegetarian but my dad and his brothers and his parents and his grandparents and on and on were all hog hunters. They have free range hogs that live in the swamp, they hunt, catch, and kill them in the winter. I grew up watching all sort of animals killed and cleaned. Maybe that i why i am veg.... bc i do believe animals can suffer, and I think it is rather gruesome to eat them, but i deal with and accept the fact that my family and most everyone I know, eat meat. However, I think it is more humane to kill and eat wild animals that it is to raise them in tiny cages and mass produce them. Anyway, I used to think about this ALL THE TIME. I am so spiritual with nature and animals that is almost goes over into the realm of new age hokey-iness.
Yes, i can laugh at myself.
No, I will not eat a shrimp.
Yes, i want to bury steaks and give them funerals
No, Im not disgusted by watching a hog being butchered.
Yes, i love bones. I collect bones. I see life as a circle....my bone collection and my vegetarianism are not a contradiction. They are a confirmation. Almost a religion.
Humans can be nasty. and vile.
Life can be ugly. and gruesome.
There were times, when i should have looked away.
and i didnt.
And humans can be Kind and Joyful
and Love and compassion can abound
and i honestly don't know what to make of all of it.
So i draw
and i write
and i blog
and i breathe
2 comments:
Being able to read this was the highlight of my week. I love the truth and complexity you describe with conviction.
I saw a hog butchered at a very young age and I remember it well. Hell of a thing.
There were many times that I too should have probably looked away, but didn't. Honestly - I have to say, I am glad that I never did look away. I really am. Those things are a truth in life. Not to be denied. I can't pretend that it doesn't exist. I need to know on some level. Seeing the slaughter gives you a perspective on food that most people never get. They don't want to think about those things, but knowing, first hand, is a whole other world in terms of understanding and perception.
I love animals. These pictures are great. I relate heavily with what you have to say here. I am not a vegetarian, but I have shifted my focus to a wider variety of possibilities. Still, I don't know if I'll ever give up meat. I was raised in the mountains were many people raise their own, live off the land, and the hunt the wild. It's a way of life, rooted in the natural world, that is very much a part of me and my spirit.
I love bones too. I've been known to keep a bone or two; even use it for art. My cousin used to paint the skulls of deer that they had hunted and weave dream catchers between the horns. I wish I had held on to one. Sadly, I did not.
Isnt it bizarre? To know people who live off of the land - literally - and to know people who have never been out of the city for more than a day? And these things can exist so near each other. I remember my dad telling me that his mom had an ELECTRIC BUTTER CHURN. and i was thinking now, that is a hell of an artifact bc for how long would that have been in demand? I mean people used butter churns and then bam bam bam no one even sees a butter churn except in antique stores. (generally speaking, i know there are exceptions)
I took a lot of anthropology courses in college and that is why i think so critically about my family. Bc it IS me, but then I look at my experience from an outside point of view, too.
i think that is why i LOVE folk art so much. Weaving a dream catcher between the antlers of a deer skull is beautiful amazing! Sorry you didn't get to hold onto that, but thank you for giving me the mental image!!
oh and as always thank you for your comments.
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