Weaving gratitude through the goodness of the silkworm

Why do we take life to produce non-living things for our own comfort? The silkworm labors, taxes, releases so much goodness and for what? To be robbed of its transcendent form? Preposterous. There must be a better way to harvest the silk that supports such goodness of life. Is the memory of the silkworm preserved through its production? If this silk were not harvested to bring such joy to another form, would the silkworm have been gifted such a capability? When it toils and spins - does it feel well suited for the activity? “Fulfilled” in living for its purpose? And if it were to be informed of this lifecycle from the perspective of the harvester and from the perspective of the consumer, how would this be received? How would it change its behavior?

The life of a silk moth is 5-10 days of its 6-8 week lifecycle. It has no apparatus for eating or drinking, therefore only lives the span in which the fuel acquired during adolescence allows. Domesticated silk moths live this cycle in a flightless existence due to their weight. But this is unique to domesticated silk moths which are artificial selected, domesticated and bred. This feature also feeds into the silk production, to yield an easily harvestable single strand of silk (lunar moths for example do not have this feature, and also excrete an enzyme which causes the silk to meld into a slime-like glue). This selective breeding is creating defects - not only creating, but intentionally propagating them. And the disgust of inbreeding amplifies (or I suppose, reveals itself in another form to me).

I have to hope that the experience of the silk is fed back to the silkworm, and this allows pure joy in the process of its cocooning, it’s enjoyment in munching on the mulberry leaves, the rest it feels in the moments after spinning. We ought to consider where we place our gracious thanks. It is not the sheets that we cozy up with at night that bring us comfort, warmth, peace, joy - it’s the goodness of the work that brought them there. The animation that brings the inanimate such beauty.

This calls for deeper consideration during periods of consumption - how can you not be increasingly thankful for the infinite accessibilities that don’t simply magically be? The more convenient and accessible things become, the more at risk we are of dissociating with how they got there. We cannot become detached from the process of life that supports life.

And where can I bring light to such goodness? It starts with how you relate to the things in which goodness was infused to bring about the possibility of relationship. Reverberate goodness with appreciation of such and be inspired to offer equal goodness in unique form.