Silmarillion - Chapter 02 - Of Aule and Yavanna

[the phantom]

There's something that I thought was funny in the chapter. Yavanna tells Aule-

They will love first the things made by their own hands, as doth their father.

This seemed like a tiny bit of a put down or at least a complaint about Aule loving his own work more than other things.

Didn't Yavanna realize the same was true of herself? After all, she voiced a desire to defend her work against others, and did not want to subject it to Eru's children. Her actions and words in the chapter make it obvious that she has more than a little love for the work of her hands.

And notice that she did not desire the Ents to exist for the purpose of fellowship and teaching, but rather to serve as guards for her handiwork. It seems to me that Aule's motivation is much more noble and worthy of the blessing of Eru.

And speaking of giving life to trees in order to stop people from cutting them down, I just thought I'd throw in a funny Jack Handy quote-

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.