I was thinking about this one yesterday (LOVE this question, seriously), and I came up with another, which might be categorized as 'unusual':
Killing and butchering animals. This includes hunting and dressing deer, dispatching and processing chickens, etc. I don't like the killing, by any means- it took me a long time as a child to make my peace with the process. But there is a combination of skill and spirituality that occurs. This reflection on trading their good life for mine- and my desire to make that good, too. There's also nostalgia- field dressing was my first exposure to anatomy and physiology. I remember butchering an elk with my mom, and her stopping to have me look at the heart. We got a book and we looked at all the great veins. Then we cut it down to look at the valves, and the chambers. I think that was the moment I fell in love with science. I still feel such an overwhelming sense of reverence and awe every time I butcher an animal. Also, every living creature has anatomical uniqueness. That's pretty cool to see.
I find I also try to pin down that "transition moment"- where it stops feeling like an animal, and starts feeling like "meat". It's a little different every time. Sometimes, for chickens, it's when you've just gotten the feather off. For mammals, it seems to come later, once you've fully brought them down to a butcher's hang type state.
It's one of those activities where you are awake, aware, and reverent. Also, it can be flippin DIFFICULT, particularly turkeys. So there's a lot of skill and strength and patience. You are forced to be acutely aware of mortality and morality.
I hope this doesn't offend anyone. Hunting and raising meat animals is deeply personal to me. We do not hunt for trophies, and we use as much of the animal as we can. (I've choked down enough pemmican and liver to attest to that). In fact, I haven't bought any meat in over 2 months- we've just been eating game.
