Considering the pig, a single-minded bestiary.
Considerations of humanity and hogritude, because an insufficiency of pigs is one of the great faults of all that the gods have made manifest to man.
We do not consider the complex relationship of pigs and humans with near the attention or scrutiny that we consider the doneness of our pork chops. Nor do we consider human-pig interaction with anything like the almost religious devotion we have when discussing barbeque techniques. Who is missing out in this inattention the most, the pigs or the humans?
Pigfish… When is a pig like a fish? When it is a Medieval Latin porcus (pig) piscis (fish), or porpoise, of course.
Rural life depends on independence, but within an interdependent community. Every act eventually proves itself to be hitched to everything else, and self-sufficiency is only a virtue if it is shared.
The regular bludgeonings of chance and circumstance are troubles from eternity, and shall not fail. If we remain expectant and persistent, adversity can be born, and if we can we must. Endure to conquer. Root on, little pig, root on…
The necessity of nutrition – pig or man, nothing is more interesting than those things that you eat. But while idealism – perfection, utopia, beauty, etc. – is food for the soul, a different mind-set is required to feed our bodies. Our appetites can have ideals, yes, but compromise, workability, and the pragmatism of necessity often play the major role.
