This portrait of my rooster is at the top of the images I can select to share for this blog, and it is amongst my favorite. We can learn a lot from looking at chickens, and from having chickens look at us. Chickens can turn other chickens out with a ferocity and decisiveness that is kind of astonishing. In fact, that chicken looks quite different now, his comb is blobby and singular, rather than the beautiful spiky thing he had in that picture. It was pecked and damaged by another rooster, his son, who we killed for being too mean. He made delicious soup. 

Once I’ve gotten a toehold on disliking someone, it’s easy to stand up on it. It doesn’t always last, but sometimes it does. I think maybe I used to hold grudges, now I’m just busy. 

I may not hold anything against a person, but if I don’t love them, well, it can be awfully difficult to drag myself out of the house to see them, or to reach out to schedule something, that’s the truth, and when it comes to hours spent together? Well, that’s just about where it comes to a close, doesn’t it.