Stained Milk

reflections on purity and contamination.

Maharlu Lake in Shiraz, Iran via @databases

This essay explores music, religion, Rome’s legacy, and politics, and reflects on a reframing of purity and contamination. I want to claim that this is not meant to be a romanticization of contamination, but simply an invitation to a new perspective away from purity. Today I am also hosting my first sensorial workshop in person, in Barcelona- stemming from this essay. To give you a taste of the sensorial part, I will play the soundscapes of the workshop in the audio for this essay, and leave you the playlist at the end, somehow it makes me feel you will be there too if you have the music. Enjoy the essay!

I want to make the case for contamination, the type of contamination which turns a hum into a rhythm, an empty cauldron into a spell, a kiss into a cell exchange, the kind that turns words into poetry. Any revolution starts with the contamination of the status quo. Purity is static, unmoved, and stagnant; it doesn’t last. This false illusion that purity is achievable has been the root of some of the most heinous crimes in this world: from witch hunts to the persecution of races and religions.

The word purity comes from purite, meaning "freedom from moral contamination, sinlessness, innocence; righteousness; chastity.” It also derives from Old French purete "simple truth," but its earlier roots are from Latin purus meaning "clean, pure, unmixed”. As with every word, its meaning has been subject to the meaning that was placed upon it. I notice a general rejection of this last sentence from those who defend constitutions made by predominantly white men, or who reject the reality of gender as a spectrum, or attach to one truth. These individuals are terrified with fear when the fictitious foundations they have built their beliefs on are shaken.

The word contamination originally means "to bring into contact," from the assimilated form of com "with, together" and tangere "to touch". If contamination is bringing things into contact, purity breeds individualism. Consequently, when purity becomes the goal of a society, oppression looms.

As you read on, I want you to keep in mind this connotation of contamination, but also that you allow yourself to explore the various meanings that this word evokes for you. If you can, dance with them.