I didn't get through the whole thing, but the first segment is about an alleged trend among TikTok women where you tell your husband or boyfriend that you saw a bird -- just that -- and film his reaction. If he really cares about you, of course, he will find this news intensely interesting. Matt Walsh then proceeds to hold forth at some length on the subject of why someone seeing a bird is not intensely interesting. I would comment on the interestingness of his commentary, but we wouldn't want to get too meta here. If you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
I got off YouTube and went directly to Bernard Beitman's book Meaningful Coincidences. I had left off on p. 137, where Sanda Erdelez is mentioned, so I picked up from there. Two pages later, I found this:
Jungian therapist Helen Marlo expects coincidences during psychotherapy. . . . Marlos described a patient who wanted to be a bird. This wish reflected his desire for a strong mother (bird) to nourish him. The following week, the patient walked to the window and for the first time noticed a baby bird inside a nest that had been perched in an adjacent window for several weeks. At that moment, the mother bird flew to the nest to feed her baby a worm. The event helped decrease the patient's inhibitions about discussing these needs.
So he saw a bird, but it was significant. The claim that his wanting to be a bird meant he wanted "a strong mother (bird) to nourish him" reminded me of something I had read just yesterday, Michelle Stone's 2014 essay "Claiming Our Heroines – The Untold Story of Lot’s Wife." After the opening paragraph, in which she discusses our "need to come to recognize our Heavenly Mother," this illustration is inserted from P. D. Eastman's classic 1960 children's book Are You My Mother?
There is no comment on this in the text of the essay, but clearly Mrs. Stone is implicitly identifying herself with this character from a children's book.
Last night I had listened to Bernard Beitman interviewing Sanda Erdelez. Before introducing his guest, Dr. Beitman opens the show by identifying himself with a character created by P. D. Eastman's friend and mentor Dr. Seuss:
I am your host, Dr. Bernie Beitman, MD, and I'm going to talk about Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss wrote a story about a tree that was toppled by corporate greed. The Lorax, who speaks for the trees, emerges from the stump of the truffula tree and voices his disapproval of both the sacrifice of the tree and the thneed which is made from the tree. I am the descendant of the Lorax. I speak for the trees. . . . I have developed a relationship with two trees whom I call the King and the Queen. . . .
Remembering this this morning, I mentally rolled my eyes and thought, "The King and the Queen? If he really had a relationship with those trees, he would have given them real names, like Roger and Camille."
Why Roger and Camille? They just popped into my head as examples of unpretentious "real" names Wondering where they had come from, I decided to Google roger and camille to see what would come up. Autocomplete suggested roger and camilla mcguinn, so I went with that. I didn't recognize the names, but it turns out that Roger McGuinn, whose wife is called Camilla, was the frontman for the rock band The Byrds.
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Roger and Camilla McGuinn got married on April 1, 1978, the same date on which, according to a story they often tell, my parents had originally intended to have their own wedding. (It had to be delayed several days due to scheduling problems with the Mormon temple in Washington, D.C.)
According to Wikipedia, McGuinn, who was born James Joseph, changed his name to Roger on the advice of a guru, who asked McGuinn to provide some possible names beginning with R. The list McGuinn sent was mostly words like Rocket and Retro. The guru chose Roger because it was “the only ‘real’ name in the bunch.” I called Roger a “real” name in this post before reading that story.
William,
Although my sister and I were huge fans of the 1960's British Invasion,
which The Byrds were certainly in that category, one of their most
iconic songs and IMHO, was My Back Pages written by
Bob Dylan.
The Byrds - My Back Pages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G9TJk853ps
The Byrds were Americans, weren't they?
William,
Yes, you're right my bad.
I probably always 'assumed' that they were English.
My sister and I had their albums and they were at the height of
their careers in the hippie era which was from 1965 and on to abt 1969.
And yes, I was only 10 in 1965 so not really a teenager, but my older sister
was 12 and being the younger sister, I emulated her.
Of course by 1969 I was 14 and in the fall started High School.
The Beatles and the other successful bands of that era were marketed
to my sister and I's age group called Teeny Boppers.
I do recall reading (in 16 magazines) that the Byrds
were part of Laurel Canyon.
https://www.jimcarrollsblog.com/blog/2021/9/2/the-truth-doesnt-rhyme-laurel-canyon-and-the-characteristics-of-a-creative-community
Please don't watch ShoeOnHead's video on Hagmaxing, because who knows where the sync fairies would take that one. But joke aside, the comment about the man who wanted to be a bird and how it was wanting a strong mother figure to feed him made me think of that video, where she talks about zoomers wanting to date older women who feed them chicken nuggies while they play video games.
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