Taking 15 minutes to start this blog. Of late I always seem to be doing something else. In 15 minutes we have to take the dogs for a walk. Otherwise, on this really miserable cloudy, cold and windy day (with the odd stinging rain added just to illustrate how truly awful the day is), we run out of daylight. No one likes plunging about in the mud (yes, we've had rain) in the dark. Especially me.
It's not as though I've not thought about posting. I've had blog soliloquies trailing words through my head. One began with the sight of a discarded drum stick lying on the sidewalk outside the gym. I was on the cross trainer. A nice place to think, anything to avoid the pain of the 30 seconds of going flat out torture that are endured in the hopes of getting fit. So I stared at the drum stick and the more I stared at it the sadder it looked.
It probably came from the local Kentucky Fried Chicken. Is there any good-sized town anywhere in the world that is KFC free? And that drumstick. Symbol of a short miserable life and the unremarked death of a living creature, whose remains, after being stripped of flesh, were tossed onto the sidewalk.
Not many people are lucky enough or interested enough to get to know a chicken. A chicken is a stupid animal, yes? Without intelligence, feeling, emotion or sensitivity. It eats, shits, squawks out some eggs, if it is lucky to live that long, and dies without a murmur. It is merely a commodity, created only to give it's life to us.
But of course that is the easy attitude. Reality is different. We indulge in species-ism. Humans are at the top of the species pyramid and every other creature was created to serve us either with their toil or with their lives. Or both. That is their fate. That is their obligation because they were not born human. And that ultimate sacrifice is our due. No matter how deserving or undeserving we might be. The most craven and despicable among us are Gods compared to a mere chicken.
Bloody awful it is too.
There is a video of a chicken being hugged by a young boy http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/little-boy-hugs-chicken_n_5173773.html?section=australia. The chicken not only initiates the hug but stretches her head along his shoulder while he strokes her back. The chicken is happy and, it's so apparent, loved and loving. So too the boy. This white chicken, wrapped in the arms of her boy friend, is not a commodity.
The discarded drumstick was a sad, tragic reminder of what we miss by refusing to see what miracles are in front of us if we will only open our eyes. It still makes me sad when I think of it. Sad? It breaks my heart - so I will end this now before I cry again for crying will not bring that chicken back. But at least I can salute her. And apologize for the ignorance and callousness of the human race.
There are times I struggle greatly with the plight of the chicken...and then there are times that I doubt the chicken would still exist had mankind not found a "use" for them. Mankind seems hell bent on wiping out anything that doesn't serve us, so I cannot imagine the chicken wouldn't have long gone extinct except that we can use the eggs for so many things and the flesh tastes good. So, for myself, I find an uneasy peace by realizing that if many of these animals weren't a food source for us, they wouldn't exist any more at all. Isn't a short life better than no life? I don't mind people eating animals any more than them eating vegetation...all are alive and have an intelligence of some sort. For myself, I honor all that give their life to sustain mine, and at the end of mine, I intend to be placed in nature and allow my corpse to serve as food for vegetation, maggots, insects, and animals/birds whatever cares to feed from my flesh. Full circle. I eat them, their decendants eat me....isn't that the circle of life? I hope it is, because I like the occasional drumstick and I adore pepperoni pizza. I don't really want to know what's in pepperoni, I have decided it grows on pepperoni bushes and I love it. :) hope you're not offended. Hugs.
ReplyDeleteNot offended but saddened nevertheless. If chickens were not useful to us, certainly they would not exist in their billions as they do now, but exist they would, in the jungles from whence they came; a small but integral link in the web of life. Our interference warps and bends that link way out of proportion. Also, if you can stand it and are not squeamish, do a bit of research on the life and death of a meat chicken, starting with the day old chick. Might make that uneasy peace a bit more uneasy. Sorry, I too hope you're not offended. We'll have to agree to disagree. Hugs.
ReplyDelete