MUSHROOMS AS FREEDOM AND A MYSTERY...
by Vladimir Just
(English Translation, 9-28-99 by Jirina Fuchsova
was NOT authorized. Source: LIDOVE NOVINY, Prague)


This year's hot Sumava summer convinced me again,
that our ailing, not only society, but nature too, (the
two being inextricable tied together!) ,
may, possibly, be healed only by MUSHROOMS.

Not only by any single MUSHROOMS likes of
Boletus Edulis, Boletus Chromapes and Boletus
Piperatus, but by MUSHROOMS as such, for example,
like impuls: yes, Impuls!

 What else could be the goal of the political
initiative of the same name than to establish
something like MYCELIUM of a civic society?
MYCELIUM that is not directed by anyone,
that is incomprehensive, useless for marketing,
ineffective and distinctly plain to view,
invisible from a distance, but, so as to make
up for all these defficiencies!  very! stable:

MYCELIUM, as everyone knows, can last for
a long, long time, even for a hundred years.
And only then it may produce some visible fruits:
these, as is very well-known all over the Czech
Lands, are much beloved by Czech folk, people
swear by them, defend them!, and every year,
from July through October, undertake national
pilgrimages to wherever these fruits abound....
Czech people love MUSHROOMS more than all their
Senators and Saints! combined!

 You understand, wherever there is MYCELIUM,
the things - for all the enemies of the forest! -
that is for  all those who are AGAINST variety,
AGAINST plurality!, AGAINST  FREEDOM! against
DEMOCRACY! - become more difficult...

 MUSHROOMS are a metaphor for behavior and
inter-personal relations in a society...
 Scholars call it SYMBIOSIS, in politics we call
it peaceful co-existence and humanistic,
mutually-advantageous dealings while respecting
each other's differences.  MUSHROOMS take away
from trees organic matter, but in return they
become useful waiters for these very same trees:
they supply from the soil water and nutrients.

  But MUSHROOM, first of all!, is a METAPHOR
for FREEDOM and MYSTERY...

  You cannot order them around...
With rare exceptions ( AGARICUS CAMPESTRIS),
you cannot PLAN them! People are perfectly capable
of flying to the Moon, predict - to a split
of a second! - eclipse of the SUN, release
energy from atom, but to program BOLETUS or RUSSULA
they cannot... Which is fortunate...              (
People can create a MUSHROOM only from atom,
it seems..)

  MUSHROOM grows only WHERE IT WANTS! and
WHEN! IT WANTS! It also, in contradistinction to
TV NOVA, brings only  GOOD NEWS: it grows only
in a HEALTHY! forest. And should the forest be
in any way ailing, MUSHROOM knows how to fix
it! It decomposes dead bodies of both plants
and animals. Without any humbug and without
any tricks with either a saw or an axe, some MUSHROOMS
and MOLDS can easily dispose of even of the
beloved media darling of this summer,
the BARK-BEETLE! Under favorable conditions,
for example in a "primeval" forest, which, of
course, is not being cured by saws, MUSHROOMS
can liquidate the bark-beetle with 100% effectivity! 

  MUSHROOMS keep on improving their forest without
going on strike for higher wages...

  If man does not interfere with saws, pesticides
or with production of bare earthclearings,
MUSHROOMS create in their forest a garbage-free
cycle. They are the most effective complex
cleaning crew there is... Furthermore, they
work without producing any dust, noise,
and they do not spew out clouds of black
pollution - to the contrary: they produce
lovely fragrances!

  Let us, then, now summarize:

MUSHROOMS, with the exception of some bacterias
and some humans! - ARE! the only agents,that dispose of 
refuse without complaining about it!

  If we cannot ORDER THEM AROUND, we might, at east, 
star learning from
them, how to
ecologically turn garbage into something
useful.......

  There are very few things in this world,
to which Archimedes' ancient sentence:
  do not disturb my (MAGIC!) circles!
could be so beautifully applied!

September 28, 1999
Los Angeles      For all my friends,
who know, that MUSHROOMS and FREEDOM!,
(aside from Pilsner Urquell....:-)  )
happen to be the TWO most important
themes of my CZECH/NOT-CZECH  life!
both HOME and ABROAD,
      translated with Love!
                            Jirinka