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Carrion Luggage
Carrion Luggage
 
Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem.
This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it.
It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans.
It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier."
I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination.
August 25, 2025 at 9:45am August 25, 2025 at 9:45am
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This Guardian article is from last year, so some cultural references have already expired.
Yeah, I thought kama muta was when you put commas everywhere, and, anywhere, you, feel, like.
What I’m feeling is kama muta – an under-recognised emotion that has been the focus of Fiske’s work for more than a decade. According to Fiske and his colleagues, kama muta evolved to bind us to others and strengthen our relationships.
I can accept that there are emotions that need to be recognized. I'm concerned about the evolutionary psychology speculation, but I'll let it slide for now.
The article links to a page giving a concise definition of kama muta: "Kama muta is the sudden feeling of oneness, love, belonging, or union with an individual person, a family, a team, a nation, nature, the cosmos, God, or a kitten."
Okay, sure, but isn't that just "love?" Don't laugh. I don't know emotions.
We experience it at some of the most important events of our lives – births, weddings, and funerals – and it is commonly exploited by writers, directors and marketeers to enhance the emotional impact of their stories.
Of course it's exploited by advertisers. What isn't? I imagine it's like when the ad includes a cute puppy for no other reason except to get people to think "what a cute puppy!"
Those of a cynical disposition may find the concept cloying and sentimental...
This person of a cynical disposition doesn't try to dismiss emotions.
...but the latest research suggests that kama muta can be a powerful force in politics.
And that is, in part, what makes me cynical.
“All psychologists assumed that crying meant sadness,” says Fiske, yet the tears that Schubert was describing occurred during positive events.
I, um, wasn't aware that psychologists assumed that crying always meant sadness. In fact, if they did, I'd question all of psychology because it's pretty clear even to me that people can cry from relief or joy.
At the same time, Fiske began looking for a term that would neatly describe the emotion they were hoping to capture. After much searching, he settled on kama muta, an old Sanskrit term that means “moved by love”.
Hm. Like the Kama Sutra, I guess? Did Sanskrit have different words for different kinds of love? Because the Kama Sutra is explicitly about one certain kind of love, and it also involves movement.
Anyway, I mostly saved this article because it's tangentially about writing, which sometimes involves manipulating a reader's emotions. For that reason, I'm skipping a bunch here.
Storytellers across time have evoked kama muta to captivate audiences. Fiske believes that we can trace it back to Odysseus’s return home to Ithaca after 20 years of turmoil, and his ultimate reunion with his wife. “It’s clear from the text that they feel this emotion,” he says. Today, many people report experiencing it when Wall-E reunites with Eve in the 2008 romantic science fiction film.
Or I suppose you could just watch Up.
Anyway, yes, even I have felt that emotion. And yet, I wonder: does giving it a name diminish its impact? |
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