The Free Radical

Despite his apparent nervousness and ADD, conversations with Squirrel can be surprisingly enlightening…

“I’ve been finding dried mushrooms lodged in tree branches,” I began. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“Oh, of a certainty! Assuredly, it is I!”

“More stores of food for the winter, I presume?”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Aren’t you concerned that others may steal your mushrooms before you’ve had the chance to gather them up once they’re dried?”

“But… but… they’re not my mushrooms.”

“But you’re the one who goes to the trouble of picking them, carrying them to a suitable branch, and laying them out in the sun to dry,” I argued. “Surely this is a suitable basis for laying claim to the fruits of your labour?”

“I perform these tasks because I am the one most suited to performing them. The mushrooms must be picked quickly once they’ve burst forth… or else the worms and larvae will claim them all. I preserve a portion of them to feed the rest.”

“The rest? You mean they’re not just for yourself?”

“They are for whomever finds them… and happily, sometimes it is I! I never remember the places I stash them; when I find them anew, it is a most joyous occasion!”

“So you’ve never considered that they belong to you?”

“Oh dear, no. Here, we have no concept of ownership. It is a strange idea initiated by your culture. It takes the whole forest to ‘produce’ these mushrooms. They ‘belong’ to the whole forest.”

“But you have to compete with the other creatures of the forest for adequate food…”

“No! So much error has been born from this dubious concept of ownership. In the history of the world, your culture is the first and only that has sought to lock up all the food… withholding it from others. The very concept of ownership has arisen from this curious act. For ten thousand years your culture has played out the many ramifications of this singular choice.

“You must begin to understand that there is only One Life here… and it does not belong to me or to you… though we are all assuredly participants. Would you feed only your brain but starve your heart? Is your right hand in competition with your left foot for the ‘limited’ food available? Ownership is an absurdity based in false arrogance.

“One Life is engaged in feeding itself toward achieving greater complexity. Your cultural conceit is a stale concept, feeding no one, starving the All.

“Here, enjoy a mushroom… on me.”