Surely, this chicken can qualify as the biggest ODDITY I’ve run across! I found it on the Smithsonian website. The brief article was written by Meilan Solly.
Associate Editor, History, Smithsonian
September 19, 2019
The Ayam Cemani—an inky black chicken breed indigenous to Indonesia—is known by many names: among others, the “world’s most bewitching chicken,” the “Lamborghini of poultry,” the “Goth chicken” and the “Sith Lord bird.”
There’s a reason this chicken commands such attention. As Jason Bittel writes for National Geographic, the Cemani is perhaps the “most deeply pigmented creature” found in nature. Every aspect of its appearance, from its feathers to its beak, tongue, eyes and claws, is jet-black.
The above came from the Smithsonian website. Which leads me to a reason for a change I have to make.
I read last week that it’s no longer enough to use a photograph, even with attribution of the source, without contacting the photographer, and asking permission to use it in another place. Failure to do so could result in being sued.
Sooooooooo, I have to change Linda’s Heart to a topic that won’t include others’ photographs, which I consider essential for a newsletter on odd things.
The Change
This morning, on Medium.com, where I’ve started writing again, I read an article that really stunned me.
I’ve been writing there, here, and on Twitter and LinkedIn, about topics I thought would be high on everyone’s list of what they’d like to read. But in all those places, I chose topics that I really didn’t care about that much.
Ayo, a top writer on Medium, et al, looked straight at me and said, “Linda! Stop writing about what you think others want to read! Write about what YOU really care about!”
So, here I am, writing this newsletter, before I write a “story” (everything on Medium is called a story) about something I’ve cared about all my life. Something that has inspired, motivated, confused, angered, and led me to scream at a lifelong friend (she immediately forgave me), in the middle of an emotional breakdown. My third.
It’s all wrapped up in my lifelong journey through five churches and their differing ideas and beliefs, and my changing feelings about what I believe. What I no longer believe.
And wondering if those changing beliefs are what I want to keep—or not.
My Wonderful Subscribers
Those of you who have subscribed to this newsletter may not be interested in hearing about my perplexing, confusing, maddening slog through fear, joy, utter devotion, the loss of that devotion—and why I lost it. I understand.
I hope you’ll stick with me for 2-3 issues of Linda’s Heart before cancelling your subscription. If that happens, I’ll thank you for being part of this experiment in framing my remaining spirituality and figuring out which picture belongs in the frame.
Odd, but Not Forgotten
I hope you enjoyed the “Goth Chicken.” I still can’t believe, looking at it, that it isn’t plastic painted black, blacker, blackest!
I’ll write again soon, I promise. From our little piece of paradise in the NM Sacramento mountains near Cloudcroft.
I’m leaving West Texas for the hottest part of the summer and escaping to 8,000 ft. elevation, where it never gets above 78 degrees during June, July, and August.
And it rains for 2-3 months, thanks to the monsoons!
Hugs and Happiness.
Linda
I'm hanging in interested in what you have to say