Revisiting Scenes from “Yours, Mine and Ours”
July 1, 2013
I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed on the radio show, Simple Life Radio with Cynthia Fernandes, about my book, True North- The Shocking Truth of “Yours Mine and Ours”. (Book Release Event coming up soon – Friday July 12, at 6-8 PM at the Carmel Art Association and Pilgrim’s Way Book Store in Carmel-by-the-Sea).
During the show, Cynthia played a few minutes of a couple of scenes from the film “Yours, Mine and Ours” starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda; the movie which is part of the title of my book. In the vignette, little Phillip, the child protagonist of the film, gets into a fight with kids at school over whether his last name is North or Beardsley. In the film, his character wants his name to be Beardsley, supporting and promoting the desire to combine the families into one big happy household. Lucy, seeing that her character’s (my mother, Helen North’s) plans are working, pleads with the nun who holds Phillip after school for fighting, and asks her to allow Phillip to call himself a Beardsley. (Phillip was writing on the blackboard 100 times, “My name is Phillip North.”)
Ha! It’s a cute, funny scene, and it works well in the context of the film. I hadn’t seen the film in a while, and while I enjoyed watching the short clips Cynthia had selected, I found myself experiencing a cognitive dissonance between what I was watching, and my knowledge of what the actual “Yours, Mine and Ours” family experience was really like. We discussed the differences between Lucy’s fantasy story and the experience I had as part of the real-life family portrayed in her film. Lucy made a heartwarming, funny movie that was entertaining and a success by any measure. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that the family environment portrayed in the film was the polar opposite of the real thing. We never could live up to it.
During the interview, Cynthia and I shared insights about our experiences of the healing power of nature and spirit. I also shared some of the challenges I faced, and details about my healing process/recovery from this childhood trauma –trauma that has taken my entire adult life to come to grips with and get over – on my way to becoming a happy well-adjusted human being. I talked about my journey towards wellness which includes meditation: “Meditation helps us to experience our essential nature – which is silence – that is where the bliss is – where we experience the joy of divine love.”
You can listen to the complete interview online. Here is a youtube link to the Simple Life Radio Interview