Get Your Pretense On!

80 • Get Your Pretense On!

a chicken family, acknowledged by his chicken step-brothers and sisters, and thought, believed and acted as one of their own. He was well adjusted, growing up to be a fine representative of what a chicken should be and do. He learned all the chicken habits, assumption, and culture, and enjoyed doing the things that chickens enjoy doing: he became a good clucker, he could cackle with the best of them, and though his beak was big (as well as his feet) he liked scratching in the dirt for grits and worms, juking his head around to scoop up seeds, flapping his wings furiously, rising a few feet, and then crash landing down to the ground with dust and feathers flying. He was imprinted with all things chicken, loving all chicken games, lounging at chicken hangouts, being afraid of chicken enemies, and setting chicken goals. He believed in his heart of hearts that he was a chicken, as did all his fellow chickens, who affirmed his chickenhood and total chickenicity. Later in life, the eagle-who-believed-he-was-a-chicken looked up overhead and was surprised at that huge bird soaring speedily and with no effort on the wind currents with barely a beat of its wide wings. Looking at his fellow chickens, the older eagle asked, “What is that thing up there?!”“That’s what they call an eagle”, replied a nearby chicken. “That’s what we call the ‘King of the Birds.’ It’s not like us; it was born to fly and soar and hunt. We are birds of the ground, built to peck, and cluck, and cackle. It was made for the air, not like us, birds of the coop.” The old eagle-that-figured-it-was-a-chicken heard the explanation, accepted it, as he had all his life, and yet still – he felt a little funny about it. It seemed like he should be up there, too. All his friend and family chickens went back to clucking, pecking, and cackling, turning their eyes once more to the ground, digging in the dirt