bite-sized religion

 

 

 

    In my grandma's kitchen, back home in Baton Rouge, I listen to the sounds of cooking. Despite the rich flavor palate of southern Louisiana, it's not often that I get to be a part of the cooking. Still, I participate in other ways: watching my little cousins in the backyard, giving the dogs attention with free hands, gossiping about the latest family drama with my younger cousin (who is much more involved with that business), making hot chocolate during the winter season. 

 

    We all gather together, even those that have since left Louisiana for slightly more distant pastures. These rituals of connection keep us tied together, a family by blood and by choice. A lot of people don't realize the religiosity of sitting down together and enjoying a meal, making a meal, but simple mindfulness can lead to a greater understanding of how eating might be a practice close to God(s) (whatever God looks like to you). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"In mentoring the uninitiated, elders unburdened themselves, knit together ritual utterances, and condensed extensive mythologies into bite-sized pieces that left listeners hungry for more." - Pérez

    When I was younger, I struggled with a pretty intense eating disorder. Now that I'm older, I have a better relationship with food. Part of that experience was learning that indulging your body isn't bad. Of course, everything should be done in moderation, blah blah blah, but there truly is no harm in eating an entire pint of ice cream in one sitting (unless you're lactose intolerant, in which case, sorry?). Concurrently with learning how to treat my body well, I became very interested in religion. I do not believe this is a coincidence.

    So much of popular Western religion is presented as restrictive, but there is something holy about "let[ting] the soft animal of your body love what it loves" (Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese"). Besides, if God (or whatever equivalent you may have) didn't want us to indulge in things that make us happy, why would He create all of it? Why let people discover the beauty of freshly baked bread, or sweet jams? Just like He delights in the smells of burnt food and incense, we are allowed to delight in such things, too. 

 

"There will be a space for all of us, but [my altar space] is always upstairs, or at my door, or downstairs, or in my yard, so that my relation to God is always close at hand, and becomes part of my living place. [The spirits] are not outside my space. It’s not something outside: it’s every space. It’s people who wear eleke (beaded necklaces). You wear it around your neck; it takes up space on your body. [Initiates] wear bracelets, etc. It’s the clothes you wear. All of this is ritual space. Your body is a temple. To get real technical, your body becomes ritual space that is designed." - Pérez

  

  To go back to what I mentioned previously, eating is a practice close to God. When you cook, you bring something into existence that didn't exist before. You provide nourishment for God's creation. Those moments are important, especially when you share them with someone else. They become intentional rituals of creation, which is what religion is all about, in my opinion.