our hen

i just had chicken soup. our hen was in it. she got killed yesterday by a hawk, and we figured that the best way to honor her would be to eat her, so that she could become part of us. she was a great hen and we really liked her. she laid eggs every morning; she took really good care of her chicks, and she had lots of them. she also took care of all the guinea hens when they were small, protecting them and treating them as if they were her chicks. they used to follow her around everywhere. she got along very well with the rooster, the father of all her chicks. i think he'll miss her a lot now, they used to share one coop, just the two of them, while the rest of the chickens and guinea hens were in another coop. she was our only hen, as far as i can tell. we have at least 5 roosters, and a bunch of chick which are too small to tell. i don't know what's up with the roosters, why they didn't defend her when the hawk attacked. they fight among themselves all the time, and i thought that they were supposed to defend the hens and chicks, but apparently not this time. in any case, ed found her shortly after the hawk killed her. the hawk was trying to eat her, but i think she was too big for him to carry, so when ed showed up, he flew away empty-clawed. ed picked her up, plucked her, took out the internal organs, and put the rest in the fridge. sena was really interested in all the internal organs - heart, gizzard, intestines, liver, and everything else. we also found many eggs, bright orange, getting formed inside her body. when we told aiyana, it was a different story. she was very upset, and told me to make the hen alive again. she cried for about one hour, while i held her and tried to explain about death, chickens, and hawks. she was still upset by the end, but stopped crying and eventually got on with playing again.

so we decided to cook the hen; the kids are not at all interested in eating meat. even on the rare occasions when they see me eating it (like a couple of times in mexico), they want nothing to do with it. i respect their decision, and i think that their diet is varied enough not to need any meat. so i have no problem with them not eating it.

this incident brought out some feelings i have about eating meat, but i don't want to dwell on them to much, so i'll share only this:
it's so easy to eat meat that comes in plastic wrap at the supermarket. so unrecognizable it is, that we never think about it as having come from a live being. i know so many people (including myself) who say that they cannot kill a chicken, or another animal, to eat; because they're grossed out, or because killing brings out too many unpleasant feelings; but they have no problem going to the supermarket and getting it there, as long as someone else does the dirty work, and as long as they don't have to think too much about it.
so i feel that chosing to eat meat is ok, but i just think we should do it a little more consciously...