Powerful Goddess Portraits

I rather you have a good mind than a cute behind.

Maya Angelou in “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”

In her book about art, independence and spirit, “If You Want to Write,” Brenda Ueland tells this story:

A caged bird in spring knows quite well that he might serve some end; he feels quite well that there is something for him to do, but he cannot do it. What is it? He does not remember… Then he has some vague ideas and says to himself: ‘The others make their nests and lay their eggs and bring up their little ones,” and then he knocks his head against the bars of the cage. But the cage stands there and the bird is maddened by anguish.

“‘Look at the lazy animal,’ says another bird that passes by, “he seems to be living at his ease.” Yes, the prisoner lives, his health is good, he is more or less gay when the sun shines. But then comes the season of migration. Attacks of melancholia.

“But he has got everything he wants,” say the children that tend him in his cage.

He looks at the overcast sky and he inwardly rebels against his fate. ’‘I am caged, I am caged, and you tell me I do not want anything, fools! You think I have everything I need. Oh, I beseech you, liberty, to be a bird like others birds! But I should be very glad if it were possible for you to see in me something else than an idle man of the worst type.”