State of Awareness

This month I have written of eating meat.
Ok, not entirely, but I have decided not to eat any meat unless there has been substantial, personal effort in preparation. I want to consume animals that I, personally, have been in contact with it prior to eating: killed, skinned, grilled, chopped, touched, smelled. In essence, I want the blood of the animal on my hands and in my thoughts.
I am aware that, at first, this seems like an tedious and unnecessary effort. "Why the hell would you do that?", has been the majority of responses. I feel the same way occasionally. But, a step like this is crucial. It is absolutely crucial in breaking down this cycle of perpetual distraction.


THE MOTIVE:
I don't think. I don't think about the preciousness of everyday consumption. I grab whatever I want, whenever I want, and stuff it into my mouth - absurdly indifferent to its origins and its journey to my palate. I can go anywhere, and buy anything I desire; pre-cooked, pre-heated, pre-warmed, entirely easy. The problem with easy, is that it has stolen the sacred soul of food.
A meal is no longer a valued, treasured gift.. it becomes just another random distraction in our hectic days. "What do I want to eat, and how fast can I get?" - that is the question that comes to mind most often.



I am so distracted, that I forgot what I am eating.




I ate a meal by myself last week. It was the best meal I have ever eaten. It took nearly 2 hours to finish (just eating). It was intentional.
I prepared a plate with rice, grilled salmon, vegetables, water. I cooked everything myself. I felt the raw fish in my hands, I felt the scales, I imagined the way it must have swum through a river somewhere - alive and free. I let sting of an onion wet my eyes. I tried not using a knife - it was hard. The entire preparation was hard. Nothing easy, nothing fast, nothing simple. Finally I finished cooking everything. As I sat in front of my meal, I began to consider every element - the rice, the water, the fish - where did it come from? What was its story? It was more than just "fish", it was a living animal that had died just so I could eat this one meal, this one damn meal. After months of growing, these vegetables had been plucked by someone in a field - maybe they had been shipped all the way across the globe. The water that filled my glass, how easy it had fallen from my faucet - but it had been used and re-used and recycled, and piped all the way to my home. Amazing.

I picked of a piece of fish flesh in my bare hand... I held it in front of my eyes, staring at it, smelling it. I slowly placed into my mouth, making myself savor everything about it: the texture, the taste. It was beautiful.
I repeated that step about 70 times. Closing my eyes I concentrated on the experience of eating. The meal took a very long time; that was the point.

This entire month of not eating meat, is about treating myself and the world with honor. It is about giving meat its right name - considering the real living animal; remembering the blood, and the bones, and the skin - realizing the magnitude of forgotten effort. This month is about being aware of life, of the origins of life and thankfulness.



(Andrew Tipton)