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“Please be advised. The following story contains material that some may find objectionable or distressing.”

This is the gist of an announcement delivered in a tense voice on this morning’s NPR news.

What deviant sexual act, what demented vice, what vicious deed requires such a warning?

The story that followed reported on butchers who supply meat to Muslim communities as required by Islamic law known as Dhabīḥah. Every detail of the slaughter is performed with the sanctity of a ritual act and the refinement of an artistic performance.

Meanwhile, the slaughter of innocent shoppers in a mall by a crazed gunman, of soldiers caught in an ambush by Afghani tribesmen, of praying Kurds bombed by Suni insurgents, of office workers decimated by terrorists in an airplane – these victims of unconscionable brutality now suffer another affront – their deaths are reported without warnings of revulsion. .

Dhabihah slaughter is conducted in consideration of the animal’s comfort:

    - The knife may not be sharpened in front of the animal.

    - The animal must not be slaughtered in front of other animals.

    - The animal is given water to drink to quench its thirst.

    - The animal faces the Qibla

    - A swift, deep incision is made on the neck with a sharp knife to minimize pain.

The Dhabihah ritual commences by invoking the name of God.The last sound the animal hears is a holy utterance, not the harsh boom of an explosion and the screams of nearby victims. It dies after receiving a gentle blessing and a declaration of gratitude. Instead of human lives snuffed by someone else’s retribution or fury, the animal dies to nourish the body and the spirit of another living being.

Even outside of war zones, I know of few people who die blessed with the respect and dignity bestowed upon these animals. Warnings? Perhaps the warning that this story suggests involves a culture that is unemotional about human acts of brutality and squeamish about human acts of kindness.

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What follows is the text of an email I sent to my neighbors today. They are vacationing far from home.

Dear Friends,

The following narrative, however unlikely it may seem, represents the absolute truth. Whether it is interpreted as fortuitous, mysterious, or calamitous depends on your perspective.

One of your turkeys was discovered laying still in the snow today, its neck plucked bare and bloody. Otherwise it was undamaged. The body was surrounded by two sets of paw prints sunk deep in the snow, strewn feathers, and red stains. Even in death, this creature looked majestic.

Before you dive into mourning, please consider that I spent the past two and a half hours diving into the deepest recesses of its cavities to yank out its innards and proceed with plucking, cleaning, butchering, and wrapping. The once grand and fully plumed creature now lies naked in my freezer – all but a chunk that is roasting in my oven.

The only part of this story that remains mysterious is why I visited your property this Friday afternoon. It seems I was sent to rescue your turkey from a fate worse than death – the garbage pile. I ran into your caretaker just as I was heading for my car. He indicated that he had discovered the dead turkey which he had no intention of keeping.

It was beautiful when it was fully plumed, pitiful when it was soaking, ungainly as it was being processed, and gorgeous when it finally morphed from animal into meat. Its thighs are shapely, its neck slim, its coccyx plump, and I wish I had a breast like that! I estimate these parts total 30 pounds of good eating.

There is plenty of offal to delight the microorganism in my compost pile. The legs and head are kaleidoscopes of intersecting geometries. I may lay them in a protected place outside and see what the elements do to them. I made bundles of some of the larger feathers. The rest are collected in a bag awaiting some future function. The smell of carnage lingers.

Now, to dinner!

Linda

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In the spirit of the New Year, I would like to propose that we all pledge to reverse the associations connected to the word ‘externalities’. It refers to the unforeseen impacts of human activities upon human and non-human products, services, and systems.

When environmentalists utter this word, it is within the context of great concern. There are two causes for their anxiety:

l. ‘Externalities’: the word almost always appears in its plural form, indicating that ecological impacts are not isolated occurrences.

2. Externalities: the effects are almost always associated with gloomy projections, indicating that the impacts of human behaviors are negative. For example, the externalities associated with draining wetlands is the disruption of water filtering and carbon recycling.

I went on a search for positive externalities and discovered one right at home. All of my ducks happily huddled against the wind barrier I inadvertently created when I piled snow from a walkway on to an open hill. There they sat, depositing globs of fertilizer exactly where I hope to plant next year’s strawberries.

Happy externalities to all!

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The traditional use of fire may have changed, but the traditional use of fire rituals survives. Some contemporary artists, concerned about the sustainability of current human practices are reviving fire rituals because they guide transformation and help redefine the relationship between humans and their world. Fire is an elemental force of nature’s order. It is instructive and inspiring.

But the clash between competing priorities and contrasting goals presented by intelligent and well-intentioned environmentalists has caused these artists to reflect upon the environmental impact of ritual fires. They are concerned that the ceremonial use of fires should be halted because they discharge CO2 into the atmosphere!

I asked my friend Skip who crafts fire as an art medium his opinion. Skip’s repertoire of fire techniques includes flames that provide light, which differ from those that give heat, or repel insects, or condition soil. He can create purple fires with crimson sparks, and orchestrate the sounds of the flames’ crackles and sizzles. Some of his fires are designed to be contemplative. Others are rousing. His goal is always to burn a fire so completely, it creates no smoke and leaves no coals.

Skip raised some interesting observations that may seem elementary, but they are also thought-provoking and relevant to the discussion of CO2 for artistic and ceremonial purposes.

He noted that fire ceremonies, like burning ethanol and fossil fuel, emit C02. But refraining from burning the wood does not eliminate the production of C02. The wood that is not burned in a fire ceremony will oxidize as it decomposes even if it remains in the forest. In the process, it will emit CO2. Thus, C02 is created whether the burn is immediate as in a wood fire, gradual through a compost heap, or slow in the form of mulch.

The carbon cycle is inescapable: plants absorb C02 while all the rest of the ecosystem kicks it back (unless the organic molecules become stored in a fossil storehouse under layers of geology). Humanity’s challenge is to measure the rate at which it produces C02 against the rate at which the plants in its ecosystem can absorb it. It also entails deciding which kinds of burnings are wasteful and which are beneficial.

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THIS IS A PROBLEM.

This is a problem because individualism may not jive with environmental consciousness that elevates communalism, interdependency, and interrelationships over self-motivation, self-interest, and self-expression.

Until last week, I worried that our cultural allegiance to the concept of individualism would thwart the advance of environmental consciousness. I am less concerned this week because I just learned the history of the word ‘individualism’. It reveals that ‘individualism’ is not entrenched in human consciousness. It is a modern idea! Individualism was basically absent from ancient civilizations and medieval Europe. For most of human history, the well-being of the group mattered more than the well-being of an individual.

The word “individualism” wasn’t even coined until the early years of the nineteenth century. Joseph de Maistre used it to express alarm about the emergence of a new behavioral pattern that promoted the self over the well-being of the community. Maistre feared that the commonwealth would “crumble away, be disconnected into the dust and powder of individuality”[1]. He was not alone. Throughout the era, individualism was viewed as a new danger that would lead to economic exploitation, political anarchy, social fragmentation, and the dissolution of the family.

The word ‘individualism’ acquired an entirely new meaning when it migrated from France and arrived on American shores at the turn of the twentieth century. In the U.S., individualism was glorified as a social ideal that contrasted with socialism and communism of the Old World. It meant freedom and dignity. Citizens were honored for uniqueness and personal ambition.

As environmentalism becomes the new cultural norm, the word ‘individualism’ may revert to its original definition, signaling a precarious state because it neglects the interdependence of all organisms upon each other and upon the resources we share as co-inhabitants of planet Earth. Then, it may be replaced with ‘communalism’ as the social ideal.

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