Microbiology, Vivisection, Derrick Jensen

So, I guess I just want to share some randomish thoughts with everyone (as usual.) I've begun two things in the last few days; Derrick Jensen's book "A Language Older then Words," and the first Microbiology class I've ever taken, indeed, if you went to my high school you might agree the first exposure to Biology; period.

Anyway, for those not familiar with Derrick Jensen, he writes largely about the violence in our culture, from the products we buy that support child slavery, to the fact that one in three women in our culture will be raped in her lifetime (one in three! I know fact to be true; I have one sister who was raped more then once and another one who was date-raped,) to vivisection, to slaughterhouses and so forth. Now, I am no vegan saint (I'm thankful to the vegans I know who show that it is possible, that a kinder lifestyle exists,) by any stretch of the imagination; in fact, this winter I've been pretty damn carnivorous, something that often happens to me in winter, when the plants go dormant and nothing green is to be found, or at least, where I grew up in Upstate New York, that was the case. Apologies to the vegans, but eating tofu and temphe for protein doesn't seem natural to me; especially when that tofu and temphe was grown god-knows where, over processed and then shipped to god-knows where so we can eat it. In the winter I prefer to eat "winter foods," especially squash, potatoes and venison.

This winter, not being in upstate redneck, hillbilly New York where a hunter-friend could bring me venison, I ate slaughterhouse meat. I felt guilty and I could picture the animals crying as they where slaughtered, but I ate it anyway. And as I ate each and every turkey burger, chicken in soups and buffalo meatballs in my pasta, I wondered "what can I be doing differently?" I know that eventually, I will have to learn to hunt. I can no longer rely upon others to bring me venison; I can no longer eat that which I did not kill, in my own way, with thanksgiving and prayers of gratitude to the animals I slay...so anyway, it is time to learn the skills of the huntress.

So I found it odd, while sitting in Microbiology yesterday, to find myself feeling pity for all the microbes we kill in our culture, with antibiotics, with antivirals and so forth. I found myself wondering if the microbes we kill have a culture of their own; a culture we are not
aware of, because we are too large to appreciate it. Could this be? Is it violence to kill bacteria that are setting up their own villages and communities in/on our bodies? I wonder how very strict vegans, the ones who won't eat bread because it involves killing yeast, feel about this. I feel certain they probably don't take antibiotics. I know many of my vegan friends and many of my friends in general chose probiotics when they are feeling sick to antibiotics, culturing helpful bacterium in their bodies, which theoretically replace the "bad bacteria" but I am not sure if this is a general statement of having faith in their bodies, not wanting to kill bacteria, not liking Big Pharma, or a combination of all of these.

In any case, I know, I've felt strange before killing microbes in my body, like "who am I to decide these creatures who have made me their ecosystem should perish?" It seems very strange to me that we have that option. My body isn't really my body you see; as I see it, it belongs to the greater ecosystem around me; it belongs to the Earth.

Anyway, taking Microbiology in conjunction with reading Derrick Jensen and studying rewilding and primitivism with my neighborhood should prove to bring along many opportunities to explore more deeply how I feel about these things. I'm glad I had the opportunity yesterday, for example, to swab my vagina and see what little microbes call this part of the Universe home.

Love ya,\
Carrot