Slaying the Lamb
I was just awakened in the middle of the night by a dream that created such revulsion in me that I couldn't go back to sleep. I have a rather sensitive nature when it comes to violence toward animals and my wife is even far more extreme. In my dream I can't remember what led up to the climax, but whatever it was required the killing of a sheep that someone was holding in front of me. I assumed that the ritual slaying had to take place, you know, the kind typically carried out in Old Testament days where the throat of the animal was slit and in a few moments it was dead. So I braced myself emotionally for those few moments of excruciating discomfort while I extended a long stick with a knife on the end of it and tried to cut the animal. The problem was that from my position I only managed to cut its shoulder. So while the man holding the animal counted seconds expecting the innocent sheep to die, the sheep only stood there bleeding but with no quick death in sight. ...