The Bluebird of Happiness

Today I asked the question shown in Figure 1 that also shows the response that I received.

Figure 1

I thought that the question displayed on a whiteboard might be a good way to focus my attention. So I did this, looked at the question for a while, then closed my eyes and uttered "Meher Baba, Ki Jai" several times in groups of triplets. When I opened my eyes and looked at the whiteboard, the blue eraser on the bottom left caught my attention and I immediately thought of the phrase the "blue bird of happiness". 

There's a well-known eponymously titled song from 1934, part of the lyrics of which are:

So be like I, hold your head up high

Till you find a bluebird of happiness

You will find greater peace of mind

Knowing there's a bluebird of happiness

And when he sings to you

Though you're deep in blue

You will see a ray of light creep through

And so remember this, life is no abyss

Somewhere there's a bluebird of happiness

Pat Boone does a nice version of it (YouTube link). More information on the song can be found by following the Wikipedia link. Of course, nobody can forget Vera Lynn's famous song "There'll Be Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs of Dover". Figure 2 contains a link to her singing the song.

Figure 2: link to song

The lyrics to that song go:

There'll be bluebirds over

The white cliffs of Dover

Tomorrow, just you wait and see

There'll be love and laughter

And peace ever after

Tomorrow, when the world is free

The shepherd will tend his sheep

The valley will bloom again

And Jimmy will go to sleep

In his own little room again

There'll be bluebirds over

The white cliffs of Dover

Tomorrow, just you wait and see

The shepherd will tend his sheep

The valley will bloom again

And Jimmy will go to sleep

In his own little room again

There'll be bluebirds over

The white cliffs of Dover

Tomorrow, just you wait and see

Another Wikipedia article begins by saying that "the symbol of a bluebird as the harbinger of happiness is found in many cultures and may date back thousands of years." 

The latter article includes an interesting quote from Oscar Wilde in which a "Blue Bird" is mentioned:

And when that day dawns, or sunset reddens how joyous we

shall all be! Facts will be regarded as discreditable, Truth will be

found mourning over her fetters, and Romance, with her temper

of wonder, will return to the land. The very aspect of the world

will change to our startled eyes. Out of the sea will rise

Behemoth and Leviathan, and sail round the high-pooped

galleys, as they do on the delightful maps of those ages when

books on geography were actually readable. Dragons will wander

about the waste places, and the phoenix will soar from her nest of

fire into the air. We shall lay our hands upon the basilisk, and see

the jewel in the toad’s head. Champing his gilded oats, the

Hippogriff will stand in our stalls, and over our heads will float

the Blue Bird singing of beautiful and impossible things, of

things that are lovely and that never happened, of things that are

not and that should be. But before this comes to pass we must

cultivate the lost art of Lying.

— Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying, 1891

 

Figure 3: Toadstones from Jurassic sediments in Oxfordshire UK

The reference to "the jewel in the toad's head" perplexed me so I sought an explanation:

The toadstone, also known as bufonite (from Latin bufo, "toad"), is a mythical stone or gem that was thought to be found in the head of a toad. It was supposed to be an antidote to poison and in this it is like batrachite, supposedly formed in the heads of frogs. Toadstones were actually the button-like fossilized teeth of Lepidotes, an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. They appeared to be "stones that are perfect in form" and were set by European jewellers into magical rings and amulets from Medieval times until the 18th century.

Getting back to the bluebird of happiness however, one must thank Maurice Maeterlinck for its twentieth century renaissance:

In 1910, the blue bird of happiness landed in the United States, in New York, to be specific, on Broadway. The Blue Bird was a philosophical play written by Maurice Maeterlinck, who would win the Nobel Prize for Literature the following year for it and other works. 

His Pelléas and Mélisande is better known today, as productions of the Debussy opera continue to enliven the stage. But at the start of the 20th century, The Blue Bird was all the rage, emerging in film and song, baptizing airplanes and race cars, and like most popular cultural symbols, being reduced to its simplest iteration: the blue bird of happiness.  

Read the full article, which is very interesting, by following this link. The article concludes:

Our memory of Maeterlinck has faded, but the glimmer of his ideas continues to resurface in unexpected places, in a hashtag shorthand for perfect snow and sky on Twitter, today’s go-to blue bird, or somewhere over the rainbow. Maeterlinck gave us the bird, but happiness is for us to find. 

 

While the Twitter bluebird is ubiquitous, there is an Indonesian species as well in the form of the Blue Bird taxis. Blue Bird translates as Burung Biru in Indonesian.

Amidst all these references to bluebirds or blue birds however, one shouldn't lose sight of the significance of the answer to my question: what do I need to improve my health? The bluebird of happiness image is meant to remind me that "life is no abyss" and that happiness can be found by listening out for the sound of the bluebird so that "when he sings to you, though you're deep in blue, you will see a ray of light creep through."

This imagery reminds of Leonard Cohen's "Anthem" that begins:

The birds they sang 
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Ah, the wars they will be fought again
The holy dove, she will be caught again
Bought and sold, and bought again
The dove is never free
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

Anyway the answer to my question has brought up many interesting associations and has certainly assuaged my currently very bleak view of the world.

Overexertion Monitor

For weeks now I've regularly gone for a morning walk of about twenty minutes duration. Usually my granddaughter accompanies me but lately she's been sleeping in and I've walked alone. The problem with solo walking is that there is no one to alert me when I'm walking too briskly. A couple of days ago, I overexerted myself in such a way. 

The next day one of my lower molars, the site of a botched root canal over seven years ago, began giving me trouble. It took a full day to settle down again. For that day and the next I forewent my daily walk and only resumed today, ensuring that I didn't overextend myself.

Annoying though this molar has been over the years, I've now realised that it can serve a useful function because it only flares up when I'm stressed physically and, possibly, psychologically. Thus it can serve as an indicator on the general health of my body and psyche. Once the tooth stirs, I need to rest physically and resolve any psychological stresses.

I've written about the dangers of root canals in a post on 23rd November 2018 titled Root Canals: Drilling for Dollars on my Alternative Media blog. In making this current post, I reread this earlier post and it made for disturbing reading, particularly the following anecdote:

Root Canals and Heart Disease: My Personal Story

By: Dr. David Friedman

We’ve all known or heard of someone who died suddenly of a heart attack for no apparent reason. That 50 year old neighbour, seemingly healthy with no history of cardiovascular disease, found dead in his back yard after having a massive heart attack. What if this deadly heart attack could have been prevented by a simple visit to a dentist? Sadly, I could have been that man found dead on his lawn, had it not been for a dentist who saved my life. 

Those that know me say I make the energiser bunny look lethargic. I wake up each morning with vigour and I always embrace the day with zest. I believe in seizing life to its fullest. About a year ago that all changed. My zig no longer zagged. I started going to bed tired and waking up even more exhausted. I was experiencing headaches and having a hard time concentrating. I went to see my doctor who did a complete physical and he discovered I had developed high blood pressure!! What?! How could that be possible? I’m a nutritionist. I eat clean and I exercise regularly. When the results of my blood test came back, I learned that I had elevated C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP is produced by the liver and rises when there is inflammation throughout the body. CRP is considered one of the major predictors of a future heart attack. My CRP measured a staggering 9.8 mg/L! Anything above 3.0 is considered a very high risk for heart attack and stroke. 

The body produces CRP during the general process of inflammation which is why it is called the “marker” for inflammation in the body. Your level of CRP is a good indicator of how at risk you are for developing cardiovascular problems.   In fact, research shows CRP predicts cardiovascular risk more accurately than a person’s cholesterol levels. Data from the Physicians Health Study, a clinical trial involving 18,000 apparently healthy doctors, found that elevated levels of CRP were associated with a 300% increase in the risk of heart attack. 

In addition to an elevated CRP, my white blood cell levels were also high, meaning my body was clearly fighting some type of infection. This internal inflammation was causing a chronic low grade fever, high blood pressure of 170/110; normally my levels are 120/82, and a resting heart rate of 90; normally I’m at 50. With all these factors, I had “the perfect storm” for a massive heart attack! I immediately went to a cardiologist who performed a stress test, EKG and a nuclear heart scan. The findings showed my heart was normal and I had no blockage whatsoever. This was great news; however, I was anything but normal. As the months progressed, I felt even more miserable! No one could give me any answers. I only knew my body was suffering from systemic inflammation but I had no idea why. 

Then one day while at a writer’s convention in California I met a dentist named Dr. P. Piero, from Michigan. He had just authored a book and was sharing it with me. As I thumbed through the pages, I noticed a section on C- reactive protein.  I asked him why a dental book would have a section on this inflammatory marker? What he told me next would finally bring answers on why I was having so many health issues. Dr. Piero told me that the number one cause of elevated CRP is a bacterial infection in the gums (i.e. a tooth abscess). This creates inflammation inside the gums, which enters the blood stream and travels throughout the body. I explained to him that I did not have any tooth pain so this couldn’t be the culprit. He then asked me if I have had any root canals? I told him I’ve had three. Dr. Piero shared that in a root-canaled tooth, the nerve is destroyed so I may feel no pain. 

When I got back home, I made an appointment with an Endodontist who discovered one of my root-canaled teeth was so badly abscessed it had eaten away part of my jaw bone! I made an appointment with an oral surgeon who had to extract the entire tooth and cut out the infection in my jaw bone using a tiny saw. The excruciating pain I experienced was beyond words! He would later pack cadaver bone inside the hole in my jaw, which will need to sit for approximately 6 months before I can get a dental implant. 

The oral surgeon that performed the procedure explained that a root-canaled tooth is essentially “dead” which makes it silent incubators for highly toxic bacteria which can make their way into the bloodstream leading to a number of serious medical conditions—many not appearing until decades later.  Within two days of having this failed root canal removed, I felt alive again! My energy, drive, endurance was back to normal! My heart rate and blood pressure were normal. After getting another blood test, I was happy to see my CRP was now at a normal level of 1.4 mg/L! 

If you are told by your dentist that you need a root canal, there is a safer alternative. Instead of opting to keep a dead tooth that will rot in your mouth, opt for a dental implant. Trust me, it’s MUCH cheaper in the long run and safer! Had I not met Dr. Piero, I feel certain I would have ended up a healthy nutritionist found dead in my yard from a fatal heart attack. 

The next time you go to your doctor ask him to check your CRP level.  I believe this should be a routine part of everyone’s annual physical. There are two tests for CRP. One can show a non-specific elevation of CRP that occurs with general inflammatory changes in the body; the other test is called hs-CRP – highly sensitive CRP – which is a measure of inflammation in blood vessels. This is the test needed to help establish heart disease risk. Thankfully, more and more doctors are realising the importance of measuring hs-CRP levels along with cholesterol to determine the risk of heart disease and to evaluate disease progression and prognosis in those who already have cardiovascular disease. Be sure and ask your doctor for this test to determine if you are at risk.

The person is question discovered that one of his root-canaled teeth was so badly abscessed it had eaten away part of his jaw bone. I know from visiting a dentist in Australia a few years ago that this is what has happened to me and indeed part of my jaw bone has been eroded by the abscess that resides permanently at the base of my dead molar. I don't know what my CRP levels are but at least my blood pressure and pulse rate are not a cause for concern.

I don't like the idea of having the tooth removed, cadaver bone being packed into the empty socket and experiencing excruciating pain. I guess I'll just have to live with it and ultimately die with it, the latter hopefully not too soon. Clearly the abscess is still there which is why it flares up whenever the immune system is weakened by overexertion. All I can do is monitor it.