The procession of life is a pilgrimage like that of pig-bearing initiates to the cave of the Elysian Mysteries, its undisclosed but inevitable purpose being the education of the mind to see and accept what the gods have made manifest.
Alas, not all who wonder are pilgrims. Hedonists abound, and the elemental bearings of moral and mental education are often set off course by the pursuits of pleasurableness and exhilaration.
Here two small adventures illustrative of life as a human imagining life as a pig. Pilgrims or hedonists, you decide…
PART 1 – a man volunteers to live as a pig
My new home was about three metres wide and 11 metres long, with a concrete floor covered in mud, straw and you can guess what else. Knowing I would be staying there (apart from surprise excursions like to artificially inseminate a sow) for a few days was pretty daunting.
— Richard da Costa
The BBC television series My Life as an Animal will feature an episode “My life with the pigs” on the 14th of May, 2009. Richard da Costa, a corporate communications consultant and actor, is the brave Dr. Dolittle wannabe who will volunteered to experience life as farm-raised pig for four very long days and nights.
A video preview is available at the BBC site if you have an IP from Great Britain. If not, Brits and non-Brits can view another video and read an excerpt of this bizarre adventure at the BBC NEWS Magazine site.
PART 2 – Dolly Parton shares a suckling pig story
…they found me over here. I had moved the little pig’s nose and I was down there… just nursin’ with the rest of ‘em. So I’ve been a pig all my life. It’s true!
Here’s a Girls Gone Hog Wild segment from a recent 60 Minutes episode where country music star Dolly Parton confides to Morley Safer that as a young child she once suckled at an old sow on the family farm.
Morley’s hoggish snort at the realization of where her storyline is headed is almost as priceless as Dolly’s admission.
Dolly Partons Pig Tale