Identity

In the rabbit hole of food related videos, some of the most fascinating ones I watched are about butchering a whole animal.

Its a process that is almost hypnotic- the butchers knife making precise cuts, finding muscle seams and reducing waste to a bare minimum. 

Each muscle plays a definite part - a small cog that makes a whole. Each muscle defines part of the animals mechanics - how it walks, how it sits, sleeps, eats etc. How it looks. 

In a way, each muscle is part of its identity, whether it realises or not. 

To stretch that analogy to its embarrassing limit, I think its an accurate way of thinking about human identity. 

When I think about what defines us - skin color, language, religion, region, education, profession, societal standing, caste, personal principles etc etc. These are our seams. And the cartilage and tendons and linkages. The metaphysical wrapper on the biological construct. 

And just as the deft moves of a butcher can skillfully create “meat” out of a living breathing creature, so can a malicious actor wield a scalpel - of socio-econo-politico actions - that turns a living, breathing, thinking human into a statistic. A martyr for a cause. Or a gun for hire. 

We live in this world where we should recognize that we can be divided along any of these existing seams. Any of those threads can be weaponized and turned into a noose to hang the fragile creation that is humanity. 

We see examples of this every single day. Of malicious ideas turning into vile words. And vile words turning into evil actions. 

As someone wise has said, we all contain multitudes.