There's Something about Hens

Last week at Knitty City, I was shown these hen buttons.  Irrestible.  Now the challenge is how to use them.  My current thought is they'd be charming decoration for another beanie hat.  Maybe a black one--this is for myself--with some other color around the buttons.

Over the years, my collection of hens has slowly grown.  Charmed by their appearance--so many women are drawn to chickens--I began to wonder what it was that made them so engaging.  They do seem to be a good stand-in or symbol for women.  Nurturing, self-possessed--you never see a shy representation of a hen--they are us at our most empowered.  Yet not threatening.  That's us.

The round button is a vintage pin given to me by a friend a number of years ago.  The speckled hen is a pin that I've been wearing a lot lately--right beneath my "Grandmothers against the War" button.  We're all little red hens wanting so much to have peace in the barnyard.  Sometimes we try the Lysistrata approach with the roosters...sometimes we offer to take the place of young people in battle.  But what we really long for is a more humane world, one where we care about and nurture your and my chicks. Clucking our way toward peace.

Today you can see on the top banner, more of the images from "The Little Red Hen."  Not to be confused with that ditzy Chicken Little, Little Red's tale tell of  her effort to get the cat, the pig, and the dog to help her.  From planting the wheat seed to making the bread, they cannot seem to be there to pitch in.  Finally,after planting, harvesting, she bakes the bread. Now the three want to enjoy it at her table.  Do you remember the end?  My dream is to re-write the story.

Comments

[lss]

My 2-year-old chicklet was just given a copy of The Litte Red Hen. :-> Hopefully she'll learn the moral about pitching in....

[Claude]

Not a story that we often read to our children in France. I must have used it in my teacher's days but had forgotten about it. Googled it and got this
http://www.bres.boothbay.k12.me.us/wq/nnash/WebQuest/little_red_hen.htm
And then I remembered reading it to my daughter a long long time ago.
I wish us all to be able to change the end some day!