Man, pigs. You hear “pig” and depending on where you’re from, your mind probably jumps to a few things, right? For a long time, for me, it was always that same old picture: dirty, lazy, maybe a bit greedy. Like, “sweating like a pig,” even though pigs don’t really sweat much. Just old sayings, you know? That was my baseline, what I picked up just growing up in a Western kind of setting.
Then life threw me a curveball, as it often does. My grandad passed, and he left me this small plot of land out in the countryside. It wasn’t much, just a couple of acres, but it had an old barn and a bit of pasture. I was living in the city, feeling burnt out, so I figured, why not? I packed up my stuff, told my landlord to shove it, and moved out there. Had no real plan, just wanted out of the rat race.
Initially, I tried growing some veggies, but the soil was tougher than old boots. I was losing my mind, just digging and sweating with nothing to show for it. One day, a neighbor, old farmer John, came by with a cup of coffee and a grin. He looked at my sad little garden patch and just chuckled. “Son,” he said, “you need some soil tillers. The natural kind.” He pointed to an empty pen in the barn. “Ever thought about a couple of hogs?”
Hogs. Pigs. My initial reaction was, “Ugh, really?” But John, he had a way about him. He convinced me that a couple of young pigs, rooting around, would aerate the soil, turn over the weeds, and generally prep the ground way better than I ever could. Plus, well, free bacon down the line, right? So, I swallowed my preconceived notions and bought two piglets. Named ’em Ham and Bacon, just for the irony.
Living with those two changed my whole perspective, let me tell you. I’d wake up, go out to the barn, and there they were, snuffling around. They weren’t dirty unless they’d just taken a mud bath – which, by the way, they do to stay cool and get rid of bugs, not ’cause they like filth. They were smart, too. Knew my voice, would come running for scraps. And those strong snouts? They turned my stubborn soil into soft loam in a matter of weeks. It was incredible to watch.
This whole experience got me thinking. If my basic understanding of pigs was so off, what about all the other stuff? The symbolic meanings? I started asking old John and his wife, Martha, about it. They had stories, oh man, stories. Stories from their grandparents, old country tales.
Here’s what I started to piece together:
Good Stuff Pigs Represent
- Prosperity and Abundance: This was a big one, especially from Martha. She talked about how a healthy pig meant food on the table, a full belly for the winter. In many old cultures, a pig was a walking store of wealth. You had pigs, you wouldn’t starve. That’s why you see pig banks for saving money – it’s not just a cute shape, it’s about saving up for a future.
- Good Fortune and Luck: Especially around Chinese New Year, the pig is a huge symbol of good luck and wealth. People hang up pictures of plump pigs. It means a year of plenty, a good harvest, money coming in. I learned that from a documentary I watched late one night, connecting it back to Martha’s stories.
- Fertility and Virility: Think about how many piglets a sow can have. It’s impressive. So, naturally, pigs became symbols of fertility, of things growing and multiplying. If you wanted a big family or a healthy crop, sometimes pigs were part of that wish.
- Strength and Determination: Ham and Bacon, when they wanted to root something up, nothing stopped them. They’d just keep pushing. That strong, stubborn will, in a positive light, becomes determination. They’re survivors, robust animals.
- Honesty and Patience: This was a surprise. John told me that in some folktales, pigs are seen as straightforward. They don’t trick you; they just are. And when you raise them, it takes patience, waiting for them to grow. It’s a slow, honest process.
The Not-So-Good Stuff
- Greed and Gluttony: Okay, this one still pops up. If you see a pig eating everything in sight, it’s easy to label it as greedy. And yeah, they’ll eat a lot if you let ’em. My Ham and Bacon certainly did. So, if you’re focusing on excess, pigs can definitely represent overindulgence.
- Uncleanliness/Dirtiness: Back to my original thought. The mud wallows, the rummaging. If you’re not understanding why they do it, it just looks messy. So, in some contexts, they get a bad rap for being “unclean” or “filthy.”
- Ignorance or Stubbornness (Negative Sense): Sometimes that strong will can be seen negatively, as being pig-headed, refusing to budge. Or, because of their appearance, some cultures unfairly associated them with ignorance.
So, is it good or bad? Man, it’s neither, and it’s both. It’s all about context, isn’t it? What culture you’re in, what aspect you’re looking at, even what time period. For me, after living with Ham and Bacon, watching them turn my worthless soil into something fertile, seeing their surprising intelligence, I lean heavily towards the good. They taught me a lot about not judging a book by its cover, or an animal by an old saying.
Those two little piglets, they didn’t just till my soil; they tilled my mind. They rooted out all those old, lazy assumptions I had about them, and instead, planted something new: an appreciation for how much meaning can be packed into one creature, and how much there is to learn just by paying attention to the world around you.
