Remembering the Little Red Hen

One childhood story that has stayed with me over time is the tale of, "The Little Red Hen." I remember my parents reading it to me. I remember the story quite well because it was one of those easy readers that had a lot of repetition and because the people who read it to me always seemed to do a great job making fun different voices for each character who spoke.

I had adults around me that enjoyed literature for children and for that I am ever grateful.

The first school play I can ever remember being involved with was a production of this story. I don't remember the girl that played the hen, but I do remember she didn't forget a single line.

I, being the sick kid that was in hospital too often to count on for regular practice, got to play the part of meadow flower. I wore my construction paper petals proudly beside the other flowers as we ignored the teachers instruction to look straight out to the audience and instead became transfixed on center stage. It didn't matter that we had seen the rehearsal many times over, the story our classmates acted out was just too good not to watch.

I spoke to my husband a couple days ago as I recalled this particular memory and discovered he was not familiar with The Little Red Hen at all!

What? I thought everyone knew this story!

Do you know it?

The little red hen finds a grain of wheat. She asks the other barnyard animals, "Who will help me plant the wheat?" The other animals are not interested and they reply in turn, "Not I"

She states, "Then I will do it myself."

This repeats itself through the entire process of caring for the wheat, threshing the wheat, milling the wheat into flour and baking the bread. Each time the other animals are invited to participate in the process and each time they decline.

It is not until the bread is cooling out in the open and the wonderful aroma engulfs the barnyard that the animals pay the little hen any notice at all. She asks, "Who will help me eat the bread?" All the animals that had not been interested in her project until the fruits of her labor are finally realized step up.

"I will!" said the cat.
"I will!" said the duck.
"I will!" said the cow.
"I will!" said the pig.

The little red hen, reminds all the other animals that they did not help with the work and the story ends with the hen telling the animals, "I will eat it myself."

As a child, this story was very satisfying. Children often seem to have a more black and white sense of justice than more liberal minded adults do. I know when my son was smaller there was no fuel more potent in creating a tantrum than an occurrence that was, "not fair."

Even though I understand now that maybe the duck was just too depressed to get out of bed and help...or the cat was sick...or the cow was preoccupied by a letter from the IRS stating she was being audited...or the pig had too much anger in his heart to focus on anything but that... there is still a part of me that thinks perhaps natural consequences should be permitted to unfold.

I do value grace, forgiveness and inclusion. I do think sometimes people need a little help and some of that help can come from an example of abundance, and charity.

This is not a post about the poor. When I looked up the Little Red Hen story I saw that Ronald Reagan had used it in a speech one time. In his version of the story, a government agent showed up and FORCED the little red hen to share the bread. This action meant that all the animals were fed despite their lack of participation, but the little hen became unmotivated to produce when she saw what would happen and stopped producing all together.

Sounds like the tax conversation doesn't it?

While I do believe there are many people out there that willingly share their belongings I don't believe this story is necessarily only about material gain. I believe this story could also be about the energy it takes to grow an idea into something real.

Have you ever had that happen? You think of the most amazing idea. You share it and invite others to participate and all you hear about is why it won't work. Nobody seems very interested in helping you out at all. They drag their feet if they do take any kind of action, and become a spiritual burden to the visionary in the process.

What happens when your idea becomes a shining success???

Suddenly everyone that said no to you, or acted like a huge bag of bricks you had to drag along is acting like they knew it would be a success from the moment you approached them. They are more than happy to celebrate your success as if it was their own success. They are anxious to take credit and be associated with your "grain of wheat."

They all show up to eat the bread and we are not able to stop them.

I have watched this process unfold 3 times this week with different people and projects. The creator is left feeling hurt, and used, and annoyed...with no graceful recourse. There is certainly no kind or classy way to remind the others that they were certainly "wrong" about being such foot dragging slugs in the process...and they have absolutely no right to anything you have produced.

What can you do but swallow it and figure, "That's just the way things go sometimes."

You know what I learned?

It takes a very special person to handle attention (especially media attention) with grace. As soon as the president of the company calls, or the cameras show up, it does something crazy to otherwise pretty reasonable people.

Humility goes out the window and greed walks in the door.

I wish more people remembered our little red hen and her bread.

I do have the utmost respect for people that manage to endure the crows after they pull the bread out of the oven. It takes a strong person to stay centered within themselves and maintain their visionary talents and drive when it is clearly evident that so many people would rather steal successful ideas or projects than create them on their own.

Sharing the bread is one thing. Having it pecked at by uninvited guests feels much different.

Ronald Reagan's Version (food for thought...because it was mentioned here...I'm not Republican by the way!)

Another Version for Kids