“Come to My Bower of Healing”
Photograph by John Diamond, M.D.
I have been watching David Attenborough’s TV program on the bowerbird. The male constructs a bower in which he carefully places very special objects to attract the female. To us, they seem so ordinary: leaves, bits of flowers, fungi, a piece of shell. And many others.
All so precisely placed within the structure of the bower. Should a rival alter the display, on his return he immediately notices and corrects. It must be just-so: his own expression unique, individual expression of what, if it were us, we would call love.
And furthermore, when the female approaches he also sings and dances.
There is an old folksong “Come to the Bower.” Come to mine, my bower of healing – and behold the found objects “just-so.” And let’s sing and dance.
