Although it might be, "folly to try to understand someone else's religious/spiritual beliefs/practices. [And there may be] no point in trying to make sense of where Walker is spiritually," I found it fascinating to explore. For me, spirituality has always been open to understanding. It's something which is entirely internal and something which says a lot about a person. Even if we aren't meant to fully understand Walker's spirituality, one can explore the values behind her spirituality as it is a key element to her book. If we can't understand it, or at least try to, what is the point of using this element so richly?
After reading the second half of this book, I realized something great about these vignettes.They allude to Buddhist concepts! Now, I may be jumping a little far for some people to follow but I will do my best to share with you what I have discovered. One major problem with my assumptions is that I know very little about Buddhism, but I feel like plenty of people are right a long with me. After all this is brief literary analysis, and I'm going with my gut here.
In vignette 23, Walker is describing a scene where she contemplates the life of the animal's she eats. Her wishes are for their deaths to be similar to a movie she admires, Cold Mountain, which portrays a beautiful death of a goat in a woman's lap. Walker accepts she needs to eat meat because her body needs it. But deep down, she holds onto, "That depiction, of how killing an animal might be done," as true because, "it reminds humans that though we must eat other living beings to live, we do not have to withdraw our affection when it is most needed" (117,118). This concept shows her coming into "mindfulness." Being mindful is an essential part of buddhism.
The value and difficulty of "coexisting" drives vignette 24. She describes a small scene of her vegetable gardens being eaten by deer and than opens it up to a much larger scene. In describing things to her chickens, she brings up the killing off of deer by humans, and than the killing off of humans. A fence seemed to be a huge struggle for her to face. But eventually she discovers, "This was her stupidity. [And] [o]ften that is what stupidity really is. Not knowing what to do.You see the problem; it troubles your heart; but you have no idea what your part is in making a change" (122). Coexisting becomes her solution. And she figures out a way to satisfy her needs to not leave anything out of her solution. Coexisting is important for buddhism.
Vignette 25 is the first time I thought about how her tone might be suggesting an entirely different message than what I had originally thought. I couldn't help but notice how her 3rd person perspective made the book sound like a folkloric tale. It made her be able to connect the entire book to chickens because she was telling them all her stories. But than I wondered if this style was meant to tell the chickens her basic concepts or if she was using this technique to talk to her readers. Now, it might not be the case for every concept she incorporates, but it certainly helps along the concept of spirituality. She could be using the chicken's as (yet another) vehicle to describe how she came across her spirituality. An easy way of describing buddhism in life. So as she dumbs down the stories of life for her chickens, she is actually making allusions to her process of enlightenment. After all, the book is about her philosophy of life! What better way than to explain it in simple chicken terms. Perhaps I am a little slow to notice this, and it won't be such a shocker of discovery to others. Also interesting is that buddhism accepts all religions. It is a process of a state of mind. Wonderful!
Now I could get very thorough into the extent of this topic of spirituality, but I am going to end here so this blog doesn't scare away any potential readers. I could write a very large paper on this because it fascinates me! And perhaps I shall later on…
Other concepts of buddhism she brings up throughout are, kindness (vignette 27), reincarnation (28), attachment (29), slowing down and living in the moment (30), enlightenment (31), awareness (32), being present (34), selflessness (35). etc etc etc!
Spirituality is a wonderful thing to explore in this book because, I have found, it moved her throughout the entire book. Her spirituality is a part of her life philosophy. It is a big part of how she looks at the world. This book makes me feel invited to question her and question the world. Her spirituality is "genuine and true (for her)," but also genuine for her readers.
(Sorry for quoting last weeks comment to my blog.)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree, spirituality did move her throughout the book, so I was glad to see a whole blog post dedicated to it! Her spirituality was the first thing I noticed about this book. Sharing lessons you've learned through a spiritual practice can be dogmatic, and alienating, but Walker did a great job of doing neither of those things.
ReplyDeleteAlso, good point about her using this "element so richly" in this text. I think it is so present in this text that it'd be remiss if you didn't follow your gut and talk about it here.
Nice examination of an important point of the book and the development of book. It's great how the whole focus from the natural aspects, the respect of earth and animals to something more spiritual. It is a universe.
ReplyDeletee