Jan Steen, The Droll Farm, 1663
I hate the way this chicken comes
All bagged in plastic
Without head or feet;
Neck, heart, liver, and gizzard
Stuck into its cavity.
No wonder people feel unconnected.Traditional people like to see the whole animal when they shop for their meals. In cultures where personal contacts are more meaningful and closeness to the earth is a way of life, it is no surprise that people are interested in a complete relationship to their food. They buy it or raise it, they harvest it, they clean it, and they cook it — all before they eat it in gratitude. They don’t become sentimental over their food — practicality is to understand that we kill to survive — but they do give thanks for what has died to sustain them.
Today we have a very incomplete relationship to our food. We don’t see where something grows, we eat foods out of season, we buy prepared foods made by someone we don’t even know. There is a great power in knowing your food, knowing where it came from, preparing it with your own hands. This food, whether vegetable or animal, died for us. The least we can do is partake of it thoroughly and with respect.
Nowadays it is quite common for people to feel isolated. They lament not having friends, not having genuine experiences, not having a sense of who they are. If even the food that we eat and the way that we eat is lacking in wholeness, then how will we feel completion in the rest of our lives?
Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight;
Empty and be full;
Wear out and be new;
Have little and gain;
Have much and be confused.
Therefore wise men embrace the one and set an example to all.
Not putting on a display, they shine forth.
Not justifying themselves, they are distinguished.
Not boasting, they receive recognition.
Not bragging, they never falter.
They do not quarrel, so no one quarrels with them.
Therefore the ancients say, ‘Yield and overcome’.
Is that an empty saying?
Be really whole, and all things will come to you.Tao Te Ching, 22
“Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation, and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions and to experience itself as a whole.”
— Carl Gustav Jung
“Individuals we consider happy commonly seem complete in the present and we see them constantly in their wholeness: attentive, cheerful, open rather than closed to events, integral in the moment rather than distended across time by regret or anxiety.” — Robert Grudin
“There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.”
— Anais Nin
“To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”
— Terry Tempest Williams
“Ninety percent of the world’s woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves.” — Sydney J. Harris
Ah, we are a long way from when we lived on the farms… just a generation ago, my dad was sent to help out at his Uncle’s farm. My brother spent a summer at my uncle’s dairy farm. Few of us get the chance to experience farm life today. I remember visiting my uncle’s farm, the huge farm breakfasts, the fresh, fresh milk and cream… yum.
I haven’t gotten into the whole food or raw food movements very much, or even being vegetarian. I find these days I don’t care much for red meats like beef at all, or pork. I love salmon, and try to eat wild caught salmon whenever I’m in the mood for it. Other than that it is typically turkey or chicken. But since I tend to eat pretty much breast meat, I usually just buy the breasts.
I grow a garden, but my soil on the side of this hill is so shallow I can’t grow much. I have tried raised beds, but even then, there are soil nematodes and viruses here that pretty much get to any tomatoes I try to grow. Or the dog eats them… These days I am starting to have luck with fruits, though – guavas and passion fruit, and my apple tree got its first apple this year. By the way, I complained about the one passion fruit on my vine a few posts back – it is now covered in fruit – Tao provides… Lots of people grow citrus around here, so I guess I could do that, but I really don’t eat it that much.
My dream home is my golden retriever ranch, with a large amount of room for the goldens to roam, and a nice big separate fenced-off garden area (organic, of course!). Maybe a horse or two, to ride around on and enjoy the area, maybe some chickens. I suppose the house would need to be a bit larger than I might otherwise have, to accomodate all those goldens and to share with other people who I would have around to help raise the goldens and care for them, since I also want to travel more. I want the ranch to raise goldens to give away for special needs programs, to tour senior homes and care homes, and to give to people who just need a wonderful pet to love. So these would mostly be rescue dogs or dogs being raised to go into helper programs. I need to be close to a populated area, but not surrounded by it, I think. And of course there must be a beach nearby to take the dogs out swimming and to surf and bodysurf at!
Gosh, is that too much to ask for? Then, I think, my life would feel whole and complete….
One Response
There is affordable acarage in Catalina, AZ. If you don’t mind the 100+ heat. Sorry no beach. No water in the rivers. No water in the aquafer’s. Arrowhead does deliver?!