Week 9 Year 1 - Monday, December the 5th 2011
"About a Druid and his mushrooms"
It’s been a long week and I’m crashed on the sofa watching the evening news. I’m trying to focus but I find myself engaging in a confrontation with my subconscious, that I call SUB and which is latent most of the day so I don’t really notice, but it is there and it is now claiming its share of time. Nothing I can do to stop it wandering off and suggesting wild associations and synopsis, without me having a say in it. Every time I lay back and let go, SUB starts running around. SUB plays with instances, headlines, images, it puts a whole lot of things we have seen, heard, lived through in a huge melting pot and then starts his collage. It’s a very intense process and though I like it very much, keeping up with it or even trying to make sense of it can be bewildering. Sometimes I even question the output, but SUB’s answer is always something along the line of “hey babe, take a walk on the wild side – du dudu dudu dudududu du dudu dudu dudududuuu duuuuuu”. See what I mean with wild associations? I haven’t heard that song in ages. SUB claims its own recreational space. I don’t want to say I’m at its mercy, but as SUB creates the synopsis all I may do is to eventually smooth the rough angles. So I hereby decline all responsibility for what SUB has come up with.
I’ve been browsing through some news-stands, paying particular attention to magazines and I came across an editorial and an article which ignited the melting pot. The editorial stated very bluntly that the attack on Libya and the Gaddafi killing were carried out not so much to help the people of Libya free themselvesfrom oppression but rather because Gaddafi was engaged in the foundation of an African Investment Bank that would grant interest free loans and also of the African Monetary Fund, both of which would have undermined the role held by western financial institutions. This came as a real blow to me. Am I fed up with all this financial nonsense. From the moment I wake that is all I hear about. Are they trying to drive us nuts? It’s dawn and the morning news are talking about the stock market having a temperature, flying high sky but hold your enthusiasm because we expect the spread to widen significantly later on as China prepares to target Germany and please, do beware of speculations. Watch your back. Look out! a brick of bonds is coming your way and waoooo, was that a loose ”A” rate which nearly hit me? That’s when I realized I was in a video game. SUB had been at it again.
I am an innocent passer-by and the purpose of the game is to save the Euro-Tower and mend all the cracks opening up on the ground by walking on them and spreading good energy. The problem is the Euro-Tower. It is crumbling at a very slow pace but there is no way of stopping the process. I take a look around and see a gloomy scenario where everything and everybody is drawn with faded colors. Except for banks. These buildings are black and no one can get in or out of them. There is no life, no activity. They’re attached to huge ventilators which in turn feed themselves by plugging into the Euro-Tower, consuming it inexorably. And mushrooms. There are plenty of mushrooms, very colored, lively, smiling and dancing. I can’t touch them, nobody can. All I can do is to try and bring things back to life, except banks, with the help of a set of magic tools I have and a lot of hard work, and in turn I get extra bonuses which increase my energy level. But to revive the banks and stop the Euro-Tower from self destructing, I need an ally but not just anyone. I suspect those mushrooms are the answer. I need someone with magical mushrooms skills, like a druid, and whom the financial world will trust and open its doors to. If I find my druid, we’ll save the Euro-Tower. The problem is finding the druid. The banks keep turning down all suggestions and every time I lose all my lives and have to start all over again.
SUB found the solution, of course. Our magical Druid is some kind of financial guru from the past who also developed and nurtured a personal passion for magic mushrooms. It has to do with that article I mentioned above. SUB has located and thrown the element out of the melting right into focus! Our Druid is Mr. Wasson says SUB – “No, that won’t do, no way” – I think to myself – “we have to find someone else” – but all I get from SUB is a – “du dudu dudu dudududu du dudu dudu dudududuuu duuuuuu”. "All right - I say – but the two of us will have a talk about this later on!" I typed in the name reluctantly and. BINGO! The Banks finally opened their doors. Mr. Wasson made a magic potion with those mushrooms and fed the banks. Slowly everything came back to life irradiating warmth and brightness. I am now awaiting a new release of the game having unlocked all levels with the help of my fantastic Druid. There is no way anyone could have solved this one without knowing about Mr. Wasson’s magical powers.
Mr. R. Gordon Wasson is a true character and was vice president of some important financial institution in New York. For further information you may refer to an article published on Life Magazine on the 13th of May 1957 or read his book “Mushrooms, Russia and History.
