Sometimes the eggs I gather are too beautiful to eat, especially the spotted ones. Large, commercial egg producers consider speckled and spotted eggs to be defaults. They want every egg to be the same. Perhaps the reasoning is that if everything is the same, you don’t have to make a choice. That carton of eggs is the same as every other carton of eggs, so you can shop without having to think.

Even these hens know that you can’t go through life without thinking and making choices. They know that one worm isn’t the same as every other worm, and that some roosters are better than others.