Notes from the Preparedness Front – RIP Otis

freeacre

I am going to feature my last comment from this site with Palookas’s Revenge’s response as a post of its own. The subject matter has drifted from “Bush as Dictator” and the conversation has taken a turn that deserves its own space, I think, however briefly. So, here goes:

“Well, on the Preparedness Homefront, I have some news for the collective memory banks...
Our rooster, Otis, who was a very spectacular, committed, and determined bird, became quite difficult to live with. He had begun to grow spurs and became very aggressive to the Murphman and myself. But, when we discovered severe injuries to the females, we decided that he had to go. So, this morning, after thanking him for being a terrific rooster in many ways, and wishing him well on his journey, we dispatched him with as little trauma as we could, although beheading is not exactly a peaceful act. He was a tough bird. I had to boil him for about 3 hours before he became tender enough to eat in a pot pie. Not bad, though.
All in all, I believe that if we have to butcher all the meat that we eat one day, we'll be eating a lot less meat.
I'm hoping that the hens will grow some feathers back and learn to stick together on their own. Time will tell.
The four new chicks are getting bigger, and probably at least one will be a male. Also, one new dove has hatched from the 3 new eggs, so life, as they say, goes on..”.

Palooka’s Revenge said…

“rip otis!

i wonder if he'd mind one final indulgence post feast to speak to murph's last question to me... how does this (by "this" you meant the role of denial?) tie into the deterioration of specific parts of the brain from environmental stress and the hard wiring of nerve synopses.

i really can't prove a connection there. but something was going on for him to become aggressive. was it just the old rooster syndrome? was he just being a rooster gettin cantanquerous in his old age cuz he's wired to do so? or did something happen in his environment to trigger it? and, if so, why did it manifest in this form?

whatever was going on on an energetic level likely was instrumental. his body responded by growing spurs to help him carry out the agenda of aggression. the aggression is a reflection of him using his power to over-ride and prey on his environment for some reason in his energetic politic relative to his environment.

something happened for him to respond this way and 10 to 1 he felt threatened for some reason. i grew up on a farm and not all roosters get aggressive in their old age. but they are wired with a tendency to be aggressive, even in young age. and they all grew spurs. we had chickens free-ranging around the homestead. the roosters used to chase my baby sister all the time. certain ones more than others but they were all in on it.

8 of us in the family and she was the only one they chased. she was afraid of them. i asked her once if she could remember if she was afraid of them before they started chasing her but she couldn't. all she could remember was being terrified.

yet she was the only one they chased. were they picking up on the fear and preying on it? what in her energy field mixing into their energy field triggered 'em? if she had been able to move with that fear allowing it to express in a state of acceptance for it to teach her what it was really all about and rooted in, would she still be afraid of roosters? would the roosters still have chased her?

only the fear and otis know.”

Back to me again…

Well, Palooka, that’s a damn good question…and, I don’t know if relates to the larger concepts of energetic responses and how we deal with aggression in society and in our personal lives. I know that when Otis would attack Murph, Murph’s reaction was warrior-like. He didn’t get mad, particularly, he just grabbed him by the throat and shook him until his attitude changed.

Now, being a female, I found myself identifying with the hens, who were getting quite beat up by this aggressive rooster. Two out of three had big bald spots on their backs and about a third of their wing feathers broken off, due to Otis being more of a pig than a rooster. Why did your roosters pick on your little sister? Probably because she was the smallest. Those who like to dominate, usually pick on the easiest to dominate. I was beating Otis off with a broom or a stick every time I walked out the back door to go to the garden or the greenhouse. It was becoming a hassle, as I am usually carrying something and didn’t have hands free to defend myself. Once we discovered deep puncture wounds on Cindy’s back, I felt keeping him around was becoming a form of “enabling” Otis to be abusive. Otis had to go.

Now, is it a coincidence that I was raised in an abusive home? That I am better equipped now to protect my hens and myself than I was to protect my mother? That I found a certain sense of “closure” and satisfaction in Otis’s demise? Maybe my step-father came back as Otis! Am I nuts? Who the hell knows?

I think you are right, though, that our lives and our culture play out our own often denied or repressed issues. If we are to make any real progress, I think forgiveness, big time, is in order. But some things are hard-wired. If you plant carrot seeds, you are going to get carrots, not apples or rutabagas, no matter how free they are.

It’s a new day on our little farmlet. We’ll try to make it a little better this time around.

As for The Empire? Darth Chaney, the Pod People, the Waterboarders, the Greedheads, the Frankenfiends, Pharma-fuckers, Moneymonsters, and other assorted misbegotten minions – for now, I am going fishing.