I wrote briefly about this wonderful book in an earlier post, if you’re interested in taking a look. I’m revisiting it to a) cheat and get another blog post for my Toastmaster’s project and b) cheat and get some details written down that I might want to talk about in my upcoming interview. Blogs: forums for public cheating.
I’ve already talked about why we all know who Christian Cooper is, which is because of his random encounter with a racist dog-walker in Central Park who decided being asked to put her dog on a leash was comparable to a death threat and returned the favour by offering to call the police and report that a “Black man was threating her life”. You know. A normal and not at all crazy reaction.
It’s possible that the crazy lady was the trigger for Christian Cooper to write this memoir, and if so, then I am begrudgingly grateful. Christian writes charmingly about his life, birding, his family, more birding, his dream job at Marvel Comics, and his spiritual quest to find what he dubs the Five-Way Road. As a self-described pagan, Christian is moved by two particular beliefs: the first is that the world we inhabit, Earth, can be seen as a living mother goddess; and the second is that the classic elements of earth, air, wind, and fire (corresponding to compass cardinals) can serve as a useful lens to focus and lead us towards understanding and connection. With this in mind, Christian decides to seek out the natural wonders of of the world that epitomize for him the spiritual centers of enlightenment representing the South, West, North, East, and Center.
This spiritual journey is interwoven with elements of his own life, and is peppered with related birding tips and his own list of the 7 pleasures of birding. As he travels the world, he almost always finds time to bird, and to meditate, and to reflect. Birding to Christian is a metaphor for life, but in one particularly memorable story, he instead uses the Star Trek episode “Amok Time” as a metaphor for the initial stirrings that cause birds to feel the pull of migration. On a personal note for me, many of the migrating species make stop-overs in Central Park, where Christian is often birding, also pass through PEPtBO where I then see them!
Birding Tip: First, find the bird with your naked eye; then, KEEPING YOUR EYES ON THE BIRD, bring the binoculars to your eyes – not the other way around!
One day, while birding, Christian hears the song of a Blackburnian Warbler, a zip zip zip zip tititi followed by an impossibly high pitched tseeeee, and he is determined to find and see the bird singing this song. A male Blackburnian Warbler is a gorgeous bird, with intricate black and white plumage and a flame-orange face and throat. Upon finally seeing the Warbler after a long period of searching, Christian decides that the only way to do justice to the magic of the moment is to create his own mythology about it.
The sun, after a day looking down on the the incredible array of life across the globe, arrived in the west so moved by all that it had seen that as it turned orange and sank toward the horizon it began to weep tears of joy. These flaming tears fell from the sky and briefly formed a lake of fire, and one small bird that had flown a vast distance to see the miraculous fire lake landed at its shore, exhausted. Overcome with thirst, it looked at the burning liquid of the lake and thought: “Such a gift should not go ignored.” And the brave bird took a drink.
From that moment on, the fiery liquid lodged in its throat, so that now it glows with the color of the setting sun. And when the firethroat sings, the last note slides high as the fire rises to try to return to the sky. And the joy of the sun at a world full of life is once more known to all those who look and listen.
If you like birds or the Marvel Universe, or Star Trek, or travel, or spiritual journeys, then this is the multi-faceted book for you!