March 3 - Wearing a Dead Bird?

It's liberating to realize how the fashion of one day is the outrage of the next.

By Magdalena I. García

If you live in a city like Chicago, whether you are fashion conscious or not, your morning ritual always includes listening to the weather forecast and pondering what to wear. The weather in Chicago is so unpredictable that it’s not uncommon to hear people say, “You don’t like the forecast? Just wait 24 hours and it will change!” And depending on the season, you might need to wear next to nothing or several layers of clothing. However, I must admit that no matter what the forecast said, I’ve never considered wearing a dead bird...on my head.

But that’s just what some proper and fashionable 19th Century Boston women did: they paraded around town with dead birds perched upon their heads! That is, until Harriet Hemenway and her cousin Minna Hall gathered together the most prominent people—i.e. men—in the area to form a club to protect the birds: the Massachusetts Audubon Society, named after John Audubon, the famous painter of birds. Through personal persuasion, letter campaigns, visits to schools, and appeals to professional men, Harriet and Minna attain nationwide attention and the passage of bird protection acts. It’s an enthralling tale of the humble and beginnings of one of America’s oldest and most successful preservation groups.

My son M. and I read story last week in She’s Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!, a children’s book written by Newbery Honor recipient Kathryn Lasky, and illustrated by David Catrow, an illustrator of books for children and a syndicated political cartoonist. The book is a marvelous tribute to the efforts of women, especially in an era when they could not vote and had no say in how the world was run. It’s a wonderful piece to read as part of the annual celebration of International Women’s Day, which is usually commemorated—in church and society—on or around March 8.

But the book also invites us to ponder if we might be wearing a dead bird on our head. What issues of justice might be staring us in the face today, that perhaps have become so fashionable—or commonplace—that we no longer see them? I pray that we might be receptive to the Harriet’s and Minna’s who are likely to condemn our lifestyle and challenge our way of thinking. And I pray that we might set the birds free, so that other ideas can nest on our heads.

To learn more about this subject visit the National Audobon Society at: http://www.audubon.org/.