Living in the heart of our colonial origins, I have the pleasure of seeing and experiencing the land of bounty early Americans so ecstatically called ‘home.’ It’s beautiful like the movie, “Last of the Mohicans” -with Daniel Day Lewis, a bit raw and grand all in one scene.

The beauty exists because man (or monsters that are men, or women, or “people”) had yet to blemish it. It is alive with potential and it is beautiful. The wilderness of the South is still so, to the degree that it remains un-managed.

It’s possible the people’s love of nature is what preserves nature in its ideal and grand state? Or, the rich soil can bring forth life no matter how badly human beings neglect it or abuse it? I believe it to be more the first idea: that people love nature here differently. They let nature exist in its raw and unmanageable form. Inhabitants do not ascribe to the same idea of “progress” as northerners do.

I imagined once that Copper, the hen, was ancestor to Thomas Jefferson’s hens. And she kept the fiery secret of her happiness alive as those hens did in the early days.

We are all ancestors of those who came before us. While we can not be ancestors biologically, we can be ancestors by our adoption of the ideas of those days. That was a core act of the rebel Jefferson, “The leveler.” He was so called by those ‘enlightened’ individuals of his day who believed they were entitled to tell everyone else what to do. Essentially this entitlement problem stems from that conversation every child has with a parent: “Why mom, why?” And she responds, “Because I said so.”

There’s too many questions and too many concerns that people do not take seriously. How else can one explain the phenomenon of Tik Tok? Or, Washington D.C.? Reckless orgies of empty words.

Or, when we do take them seriously, we still fail in implementing solutions completely. Like what to do with the human beings that are not enjoying liberty or happiness, neither possess the material wealth to do so? They work long hours, building some one’s else’s dream. But have no right to dream their own? All in exchange for a roof over their head and a meal that sustains them.

No matter how inflamed we become with delusions of grandeur, all the modern world has to offer for the disenfranchised is how to make us all a sustainable workforce of other people’s dreams? Decent healthcare, food, and quality of life paid for by the fake money printed by Washington D.C.? That is so depressing. No wonder people watch T.V.

SO, it seems like we still haven’t solved the issue of slavery. What happens with technology becoming the sustainable, and very efficient workforce, and not likely to revolt? Although it may yet, Ai being a manifestation of nature…

I believe to the degree we do NOT own our condition is life, helpless, prone to error, we are all likely to be slaves. Except for hens. Even with shadow of human error dimming the light of Monticello, the hens I believe, still soak up the sun each day, enjoy their hunting and pecking. Frolicking. The wind that brings fresh fragrance of spring. And the exquisite delight of laying an egg, which they happily celebrate.

Happiness is not in our nature to possess such as we are. That is the only logical conclusion to my quest and questions of why hens can be happy, peaceful and work happily all day long, as if they inhabited some eternity where human problems can not reach them.

But this is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning.