{"id":149427,"date":"2020-02-17T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=149427"},"modified":"2020-01-14T08:31:41","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T08:31:41","slug":"the-mushroom-hunters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/02\/the-mushroom-hunters\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mushroom Hunters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Science, as you know, my little one, is the study
\nof the nature and behaviour of the universe.
\nIt\u2019s based on observation, on experiment, and measurement,
\nand the formulation of laws to describe the facts revealed.<\/p>\n

In the old times, they say, the men came already fitted with brains
\ndesigned to follow flesh-beasts at a run,
\nto hurdle blindly into the unknown,
\nand then to find their way back home when lost
\nwith a slain antelope to carry between them.
\nOr, on bad hunting days, nothing.<\/p>\n

The women, who did not need to run down prey,
\nhad brains that spotted landmarks and made paths between them
\nleft at the thorn bush and across the scree
\nand look down in the bole of the half-fallen tree,
\nbecause sometimes there are mushrooms.<\/p>\n

Before the flint club, or flint butcher\u2019s tools,
\nThe first tool of all was a sling for the baby
\nto keep our hands free
\nand something to put the berries and the mushrooms in,
\nthe roots and the good leaves, the seeds and the crawlers.
\nThen a flint pestle to smash, to crush, to grind or break.<\/p>\n

And sometimes men chased the beasts
\ninto the deep woods,
\nand never came back.<\/p>\n

Some mushrooms will kill you,
\nwhile some will show you gods
\nand some will feed the hunger in our bellies. Identify.
\nOthers will kill us if we eat them raw,
\nand kill us again if we cook them once,
\nbut if we boil them up in spring water, and pour the water away,
\nand then boil them once more, and pour the water away,
\nonly then can we eat them safely. Observe.<\/p>\n

Observe childbirth, measure the swell of bellies and the shape of breasts,
\nand through experience discover how to bring babies safely into the world.<\/p>\n

Observe everything.<\/p>\n

And the mushroom hunters walk the ways they walk
\nand watch the world, and see what they observe.
\nAnd some of them would thrive and lick their lips,
\nWhile others clutched their stomachs and expired.
\nSo laws are made and handed down on what is safe. Formulate.<\/p>\n

The tools we make to build our lives:
\nour clothes, our food, our path home\u2026
\nall these things we base on observation,
\non experiment, on measurement, on truth.<\/p>\n

And science, you remember, is the study
\nof the nature and behaviour of the universe,
\nbased on observation, experiment, and measurement,
\nand the formulation of laws to describe these facts.<\/p>\n

The race continues. An early scientist
\ndrew beasts upon the walls of caves
\nto show her children, now all fat on mushrooms
\nand on berries, what would be safe to hunt.<\/p>\n

The men go running on after beasts.<\/p>\n

The scientists walk more slowly, over to the brow of the hill
\nand down to the water\u2019s edge and past the place where the red clay runs.
\nThey are carrying their babies in the slings they made,
\nfreeing their hands to pick the mushrooms.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, nonfiction, audio theatre, and films. His works include the comic book series<\/em> The Sandman and novels<\/em> Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and<\/em> The Graveyard Book. Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Science, as you know, my little one, is the study
\nof the nature and behaviour of the universe.
\nIt\u2019s based on observation, on experiment, and measurement,
\nand the formulation of laws to describe the facts revealed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":149428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-149427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}