Today was the day the sacrifices were made. Walking down the main street of my neighborhood this morning, everyone was in a festive mood. Families were out in their gardens, kids were running around. And piles of meat were everywhere. Everyone was butchering a sheep or a steer.
There were aspects of the everyday that seemed confusingly familiar. Men smoking and drinking tea, women cleaning. But today the men had blood all over themselves and the women were carrying garbage bags full of offal.
At the same time everyone looked so happy. This was bounty. Both sacrifice and bounty.
Mom and I came home and made a nice vegetarian meal.
To be honest, the violence I saw today offered such a release for the internal tension and confusion I’ve been feeling since being confronted with such underlying systematic violence. “ah yes, sacrifice is how I live the way I do, eat the way I eat, pray the way I pray” There’s no free lunch.
Evan Welkin 