| Cougar Press PO Box 894 Meadview AZ 86444 |
| Don't You Love It? |
Because there are four forms of existence, solid, liquid, gas and energy, we find that we have eight
primary interactions between our bodies and the environment. Air, water, food and warmth enter
our bodies. In return we exhale, we sweat, spit, weep and pee, we shed skin, hair, shit and vomit,
we leave behind piles of calcium, and we exude heat and perform motion. These elements sweep
back and forth through our physical lives like tides.
It's easy to underrate some of our primal functions. We dismiss behavior like urination and
defecation as unfortunate necessities of life. We don't see what we are doing, sitting on the
commode, squatting in the bushes or watering a tree, to be nearly so profound as what we may
believe we are doing with our other behavior.
It might help us in our quest for balance to imagine all of the flows in and out to be of similar
importance. If any of the eight processes were to stop functioning, the alternatives immediately
become medical intervention or death. For instance, there is a form of suicide called Terminal
Dehydration which is reputed to be fairly humane. The subject merely stops drinking anything.
It has the advantage of not requiring any physician assistance. It also is slow. The average
subject will be dead in four days to two weeks, although some have stayed alive for a month. This
delay offers the would-be suicide the opportunity to reconsider the whole affair.
In general, we are eager to eat and drink. We are also in tune with breathing. We have respect
for words like suffocation, asphyxiation, strangulation, smothering, choking, stifling and
throttling. We understand the need to keep warm, and we are equally fond of staying cool. When
it comes time to unload our bowels or empty our bladders, however, we start to talk dirty.
A number of acceptable words exist, words like dung, manure, droppings, muck, fertilizer, slurry,
excrement, compost, guano, muck, ordure, filth, feces, dirt, stools, excreta, sewage, waste, sludge,
mulch and mud, that can be used to refer to the solid leftovers of beast or man. I've always been
charmed by the archaic expression "night soil." Some of the above terms, like fertilizer, compost
and mulch, actually have positive connotations, with wholesome synonyms like nourishment,
enricher or top dressing.
However, in normal parlance when there is no need for propriety or polite speech, we are apt to
just call it shit. The online dictionary offers a number of definitions for this little word, each of
them preceded by the modifier "highly offensive." In addition to dung, it can mean a highly
offensive term for somebody regarded as unpleasant or malicious, of no value or of inferior
quality, useless or unnecessary, nonsense or lies, difficulty or trouble, unhelpful or mean-spirited.
It can also refer to illegal drugs, especially cannabis. It can mean "very bad or inferior." In
addition to "highly offensive," each of these expressions is also labeled "taboo." If we tack an
"s" on the end it can mean "an attack of diarrhea," or it can be just used by itself as a
"swearword," but in each case shit is still defined to be "highly offensive."
The word can also be found in such profound expressions as: "get your shit together... meaning to
get organized," "in deep shit... meaning in trouble or in a difficult situation," "no shit...
indicating surprise, disbelief, or sarcasm," "tough shit... indicating in an unfriendly way that there
is no alternative to a difficult or undesirable situation," and, last but not least, "when the shit hits
the fan... meaning when trouble starts."
Piss is much like shit in this regard. We find it defined as an "offensive term" meaning to
urinate. It can refer to the urine itself or to the act. The only bright spot is "piss and vinegar"
which is also an "offensive term," but one that stands for "feisty strength of character and
physical vigor."
Children are taught to say "pee."
Piss is found in a great number of combinations such as "piss around," "piss artist," "piss away,"
"piss down," "piss off." One who has taken offense at any of these may be said to be "pissed
off," or just "pissed."
A word that skirts the edge of obscenity is crap. The online dictionary says:
Other euphemistic expressions for these primal functions are: pee pee, do-do, number one and
number two. Nor should we forget the classic, poop or poo-poo.
There are understandable reasons for our aversion to our products of elimination. They smell
bad, probably an evolutionary tactic of humanity to encourage sanitation and thus avoid the
plethora of disease, parasites and molds that can accompany any droppings. We can enjoy the
fragrance of cow manure or horse manure or maybe goat turds. Dog and cat shit both smell bad
to us, and both of them can carry pathogens that might infect us. Barnyard manure is relatively
benign. Mucking out stables can be obnoxious, especially if there is ammonia, but spreading
manure on a garden or a field can be downright bucolic.
Imagine a molecule of Nitrogen. The two atoms in N2 are enticed by plants called legumes to
participate in a molecule of amino acid. The same plant is taking Carbon from carbon dioxide,
releasing the atoms of oxygen and using the carbon, water and energy from the sun to build
carbohydrates.
So perhaps we have a bean or a green leaf, or perhaps we have hay, and we feed it to the cow.
Eventually I consume these amino acids and carbohydrates. I burn the carbs , releasing CO2, and
I use the energy to build the aminos into proteins. While the energy that was sunshine races
through my body, the nitrogen atoms that once were part of the atmosphere have become
essential parts of my muscles and nerves. The nerves have assembled to form a brain that is able
to communicate with you. I am Nitrogen using these human fingers to greet you, and you are the
Nitrogen in your own brain, using those human eyes to receive the message.
Nitrogen and Carbon both end up in feces. Imagine if they felt the same way about it that we do.
What once was the wind has now been reduced to the lowest form of dirt.
I'm sure these elements don't feel that way about it at all. Both of them are eager to pursue new
courses of life in green plants. Life must be exciting down in the dung heaps. There are remnants
of the earlier life forms that perished to be digested. There is organization and energy, but
everything is changing. Microbes flourish.
Here at our own level, we have supermarkets where crowds of beings swarm among remnants of
earlier life forms, selecting protein, fat and carbohydrate to be taken and added to the tissue of
other beings.
Most creatures are unicellular. Having, being, just the one cell, all of the functions required for
life must be provided for within that structure and across or through the membrane that defines
the perimeter. Atoms, molecules and energy are exchanged with the environment. Within the cell
are mitochondria and organelles. A mitochondrion has a lot in common with the shoppers in the
supermarket. She lives her own life; she has her own priorities. She consumes, processes and
expels various elements and compounds. She acquires, stores and uses energy.
Within a cell, the mitochondria have their own systems of delivery and exchange. They also have
their own genetic makeup. Their hereditary blueprints are not the same as the ones that
determine the design of the body, the ones that use the cells to construct skin, hair, muscles,
nerves, glands, blood, fat and bone. The mitochondrion's genome is the same as it was when she
split off from her other half, her mother, her sister, her daughter, her separated self.
As a people, a civilization and a technology, we have become, within the last few years, aware of
how complex, and yet tiny, bits and bytes can be. What once was accomplished by a roomful of
integrated circuits, power supplies and cooling systems is now done exponentially by computers
that sit on the desk, or the lap, or are integrated into a cell phone. With atoms and electrons
being as small and numerous as they are, there is likely to be little in the way of practical limits,
so far as how deep intelligence might reach. Even the nucleus of the simplest atom is composed
of three quarks. Is three quarks a code for hydrogen? Perhaps not a code but rather a basic
instruction to behave like hydrogen? The same quarks could be busy in atoms of helium, lithium,
carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, nickel or iron. Maybe three quarks, two ups and one down, just
fall into a pattern that we call hydrogen, or more correctly, a proton. Without the electron
circling the proton, is it still hydrogen? Hydrogen is found in many compounds such as water,
sugar, fat and protein.
A long time ago, some thirteen and a half billion years ago, not right at the beginning, but not
too long after the Big Bang, the maelstrom settled down enough to allow three quarks to come
together with an electron circling at the speed of light to form an atom of hydrogen. This cloud
of gas expanded, and the light shone through.
primary interactions between our bodies and the environment. Air, water, food and warmth enter
our bodies. In return we exhale, we sweat, spit, weep and pee, we shed skin, hair, shit and vomit,
we leave behind piles of calcium, and we exude heat and perform motion. These elements sweep
back and forth through our physical lives like tides.
It's easy to underrate some of our primal functions. We dismiss behavior like urination and
defecation as unfortunate necessities of life. We don't see what we are doing, sitting on the
commode, squatting in the bushes or watering a tree, to be nearly so profound as what we may
believe we are doing with our other behavior.
It might help us in our quest for balance to imagine all of the flows in and out to be of similar
importance. If any of the eight processes were to stop functioning, the alternatives immediately
become medical intervention or death. For instance, there is a form of suicide called Terminal
Dehydration which is reputed to be fairly humane. The subject merely stops drinking anything.
It has the advantage of not requiring any physician assistance. It also is slow. The average
subject will be dead in four days to two weeks, although some have stayed alive for a month. This
delay offers the would-be suicide the opportunity to reconsider the whole affair.
In general, we are eager to eat and drink. We are also in tune with breathing. We have respect
for words like suffocation, asphyxiation, strangulation, smothering, choking, stifling and
throttling. We understand the need to keep warm, and we are equally fond of staying cool. When
it comes time to unload our bowels or empty our bladders, however, we start to talk dirty.
A number of acceptable words exist, words like dung, manure, droppings, muck, fertilizer, slurry,
excrement, compost, guano, muck, ordure, filth, feces, dirt, stools, excreta, sewage, waste, sludge,
mulch and mud, that can be used to refer to the solid leftovers of beast or man. I've always been
charmed by the archaic expression "night soil." Some of the above terms, like fertilizer, compost
and mulch, actually have positive connotations, with wholesome synonyms like nourishment,
enricher or top dressing.
However, in normal parlance when there is no need for propriety or polite speech, we are apt to
just call it shit. The online dictionary offers a number of definitions for this little word, each of
them preceded by the modifier "highly offensive." In addition to dung, it can mean a highly
offensive term for somebody regarded as unpleasant or malicious, of no value or of inferior
quality, useless or unnecessary, nonsense or lies, difficulty or trouble, unhelpful or mean-spirited.
It can also refer to illegal drugs, especially cannabis. It can mean "very bad or inferior." In
addition to "highly offensive," each of these expressions is also labeled "taboo." If we tack an
"s" on the end it can mean "an attack of diarrhea," or it can be just used by itself as a
"swearword," but in each case shit is still defined to be "highly offensive."
The word can also be found in such profound expressions as: "get your shit together... meaning to
get organized," "in deep shit... meaning in trouble or in a difficult situation," "no shit...
indicating surprise, disbelief, or sarcasm," "tough shit... indicating in an unfriendly way that there
is no alternative to a difficult or undesirable situation," and, last but not least, "when the shit hits
the fan... meaning when trouble starts."
Piss is much like shit in this regard. We find it defined as an "offensive term" meaning to
urinate. It can refer to the urine itself or to the act. The only bright spot is "piss and vinegar"
which is also an "offensive term," but one that stands for "feisty strength of character and
physical vigor."
Children are taught to say "pee."
Piss is found in a great number of combinations such as "piss around," "piss artist," "piss away,"
"piss down," "piss off." One who has taken offense at any of these may be said to be "pissed
off," or just "pissed."
A word that skirts the edge of obscenity is crap. The online dictionary says:
- "crap [ krap ]
noun
- 1. an offensive term for nonsense, or something worthless or annoying
2. an offensive term for an act of passing solid waste matter out of the body through the anus
3. an offensive term for excrement
adjective: an offensive term meaning worthless, useless, or lacking in ability
transitive and intransitive verb (past and past participle crapped, present participle crap·ping, 3rd
person present singular craps): an offensive term meaning to pass solid waste matter out of the body
through the anus
[15th century. Probably < Middle Dutch]"
Other euphemistic expressions for these primal functions are: pee pee, do-do, number one and
number two. Nor should we forget the classic, poop or poo-poo.
There are understandable reasons for our aversion to our products of elimination. They smell
bad, probably an evolutionary tactic of humanity to encourage sanitation and thus avoid the
plethora of disease, parasites and molds that can accompany any droppings. We can enjoy the
fragrance of cow manure or horse manure or maybe goat turds. Dog and cat shit both smell bad
to us, and both of them can carry pathogens that might infect us. Barnyard manure is relatively
benign. Mucking out stables can be obnoxious, especially if there is ammonia, but spreading
manure on a garden or a field can be downright bucolic.
Imagine a molecule of Nitrogen. The two atoms in N2 are enticed by plants called legumes to
participate in a molecule of amino acid. The same plant is taking Carbon from carbon dioxide,
releasing the atoms of oxygen and using the carbon, water and energy from the sun to build
carbohydrates.
So perhaps we have a bean or a green leaf, or perhaps we have hay, and we feed it to the cow.
Eventually I consume these amino acids and carbohydrates. I burn the carbs , releasing CO2, and
I use the energy to build the aminos into proteins. While the energy that was sunshine races
through my body, the nitrogen atoms that once were part of the atmosphere have become
essential parts of my muscles and nerves. The nerves have assembled to form a brain that is able
to communicate with you. I am Nitrogen using these human fingers to greet you, and you are the
Nitrogen in your own brain, using those human eyes to receive the message.
Nitrogen and Carbon both end up in feces. Imagine if they felt the same way about it that we do.
What once was the wind has now been reduced to the lowest form of dirt.
I'm sure these elements don't feel that way about it at all. Both of them are eager to pursue new
courses of life in green plants. Life must be exciting down in the dung heaps. There are remnants
of the earlier life forms that perished to be digested. There is organization and energy, but
everything is changing. Microbes flourish.
Here at our own level, we have supermarkets where crowds of beings swarm among remnants of
earlier life forms, selecting protein, fat and carbohydrate to be taken and added to the tissue of
other beings.
Most creatures are unicellular. Having, being, just the one cell, all of the functions required for
life must be provided for within that structure and across or through the membrane that defines
the perimeter. Atoms, molecules and energy are exchanged with the environment. Within the cell
are mitochondria and organelles. A mitochondrion has a lot in common with the shoppers in the
supermarket. She lives her own life; she has her own priorities. She consumes, processes and
expels various elements and compounds. She acquires, stores and uses energy.
Within a cell, the mitochondria have their own systems of delivery and exchange. They also have
their own genetic makeup. Their hereditary blueprints are not the same as the ones that
determine the design of the body, the ones that use the cells to construct skin, hair, muscles,
nerves, glands, blood, fat and bone. The mitochondrion's genome is the same as it was when she
split off from her other half, her mother, her sister, her daughter, her separated self.
As a people, a civilization and a technology, we have become, within the last few years, aware of
how complex, and yet tiny, bits and bytes can be. What once was accomplished by a roomful of
integrated circuits, power supplies and cooling systems is now done exponentially by computers
that sit on the desk, or the lap, or are integrated into a cell phone. With atoms and electrons
being as small and numerous as they are, there is likely to be little in the way of practical limits,
so far as how deep intelligence might reach. Even the nucleus of the simplest atom is composed
of three quarks. Is three quarks a code for hydrogen? Perhaps not a code but rather a basic
instruction to behave like hydrogen? The same quarks could be busy in atoms of helium, lithium,
carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, nickel or iron. Maybe three quarks, two ups and one down, just
fall into a pattern that we call hydrogen, or more correctly, a proton. Without the electron
circling the proton, is it still hydrogen? Hydrogen is found in many compounds such as water,
sugar, fat and protein.
A long time ago, some thirteen and a half billion years ago, not right at the beginning, but not
too long after the Big Bang, the maelstrom settled down enough to allow three quarks to come
together with an electron circling at the speed of light to form an atom of hydrogen. This cloud
of gas expanded, and the light shone through.
| Yoga for Carnivores by Jay Dyck |