A Grocery List

Eating In

Human sacrifices dot the landscape of the timeline of man's evolution and leaves a trail today in the expected places. I find the suggestion ticklish for some reason … or at least as a reminder that as a member of the human race … I don't have that much to be proud of as achievement. However it does solicit a surprise about how fast we have moved on to refine our state of practices regarding life.

 

The worship of the Goddess Kali is certainly a record of such practices from ancient times. Then there's the Olmec and the usual references to native tribes who have an unusual appetite for boiled or pickled man. The practices come as close as the last 500 years in human history and we must wonder how far is that away from our daily thoughts. Its enough to make a man go veggie.

 

The movie version of the practice found a popular cafe of excitation in ' Hannibal.' The public were treated … to an examination of a man's personality … that was dripping with the flavor of life. So intense was this man in his thoughts and beliefs … we wondered about his flavor for the human flesh. I couldn't view the sequels … but I don't think Hannibal left a recipe of accountability of his gourmet wishes.

 

In Indic legends … there's the story of someone similar to Hannibal. I forget his name and I don't care to find out. But the story goes on to suggest that the man … in the grand display of his intellect … would farm his body for meat … and would regularly take out portions for the cooking pot. No doubt it saved him the grocery bill … and the regular trips to the supermarket … but the event brought into encounter … the great Vishnu himself … who killed that part of the intellect in man.

 

But it becomes clear from such accounts that there is another factor … of a greater profound nature in these matters. We find it beyond the simple but famishing natures of the Narcissist. It is love of the self … served like caviar to the discerning … in the self idolatry that we experience … convinced that there is none other … none … who enjoys and experiences life the way we are privileged to do. The mere thought produces an ache like hunger ...  arising from our entrails … even after a full meal.

 

The internalization of our life's experiences inevitably meets tissue … and like the cooking pots of the wicca … the way we manage our passions … with the stove turned up … indeed cooks up quite a flavor of life … that searches but cannot satisfy the apple of its curiosity. We learn to transfer such impulses to sex … work … and the service of God and society. We even apply some volition to the task … allow a little trick or two … knowing that if we didn't … it'll go back to the gourmet of self boasting … and gloat in banquet possibilities.

 

Scientific reports on the predatory behavior of animals … indicate a close association of the survival orientation … with food … success … and understanding the behavior of its prey with a devotion that outstrips worship. Its obviously not love … the way we might love a ripe peach … or a black forest cake … but its no doubt deliciously delicate. And we inquire as to whether … in an untrained mind … we store such natures of the primeval in us … or whether they are the basis of the passions.

 

It explains my feeling of the ticklish when I began this write … and I find embedded in the unexamined parts of the passion … a crunchy sense of what's good for me … that seems to include a long menu. Its unusual to find the modern man today … marinating on such possibilities. On the contrary … it causes such a revulsion to our civil natures … that it may sometimes cause a deep and manic depression … that shuts us off from encountering such issues in us … until we are ready.

 

We wonder about the way food is shaped sometimes … sausages … hot dogs … for instance … convey a delicacy that might be more psychosomatic. I remember reading a report of two friends in Germany … who lobbed off their pricks … and fried it on the stove. I dare say they wouldn't have needed to add salt. Mustard … maybe.

 

I had the most curious experience one time … when in my bosses' office … we were discussing the business plan … and it looked like we had hit on the right strategy … that would mean millions. She salivated at the mere thought ... and I think we both thought it was funny. I can't be sure … but the year did turn out quite good … and she must have salivated all the way to Pavlov's bank.

 

The former dictator Idi Amin of Uganda was reported to have kept the decapitated heads of his opponents in his fridge. A popular news magazine quoted him as saying … ' If I don't eat them … they would have me.' No doubt … we have been treated to an abattoir of decapitation recently from the middle east. I couldn't make sense of it … and it certainly is no iron chef contest.

 

But the movie ' Hannibal ' … created a most profound statement even in the gore of its vitals. It referred to a young girl's fear for the screams of the lambs … in the association of such runaway Narcissism. It referred to the dismissal of the human value content of our experiences. And it suggests that a part of us grieves on account of that. We ought to give that some thought … the next time we go to the grocer of opportunities. 

 

I'm adding a disclaimer in this final part to say that such references made to cannibalism are certainly extreme in mainstream society. But we have built quite an appetite in these times for extreme sports … in the application of wills that … go all the way. When will we say enough … is the issue that I wanted to examine. Its obvious that we all do know that.