(from a panel discussion with Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, and Jorge Luis Borges, circa 1967)
JIM<<< This whole idea of ‘teaching someone the way’, first introduced by Lord Angelo in Act 2, Scene 4 of Measure for Measure in 1603 or 1604, in which such inspired sayings as ‘ride the king’s highway’ or ‘the pale blue bus is calling to us loud and clear’ or ‘Bert and Ernie arrived last night stoned again off their asses and longing, saving your honour's reverence, for fried peanut butter on a stick; we had but one tiny dollop left in the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a dish of some three-pence; your honours must have seen these kinds of dishes before; they are not china dishes, per se, but still, very elegant dishes---
JORGE<<< Go to, go to: no matter for the dish.
JIM<<< No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right! But to the point- as I was saying, Bert and Ernie, being, as I say, very confused and intoxicated, and longing, as I said, for fried peanut butter on a stick; and having but one miniscule scoop left in the dish, as I said, Ray here, this very fellow, having devoured the rest, but, heaven be praised, promising to replace it within 24 hours.
RAY<<< Of course!
JIM<<< If you be remembered, then, that such a one and such a one were completely past cure and, indeed, eventually fallen into the post-historical category, if you can bend or warp or bedevil the word in that way, Aladdin-style, yes, I hope here be relative truths, or belief-based mythology, derived from- you guessed it!- a classic sense of sunyata, or blank space, or peace and quiet, or primordial wilderness, this beyond fascinating idea of ‘teaching someone the way’, be it via reading, or example, or energy shakes, or the subway, or theater, or invoking the imago of pristine underground springs, so cute, so old-fashioned, so brimming with promise and hope, politely inquiring after all the weird gravitational pulls, wanting very badly indeed for it to work out for all the unknown people and animals on the pale blue bus and all the other unknown people and animals on every other color of bus for that matter, why, even the ancient builders of the king’s highway admitted as much, saying quaint industrial-age things like ‘the old gang is so glad to all be back together again’ or ‘our nail/hammer collections come in four different varieties’ or ‘the duct tape appears from this vantage to be a uniform grey’ or ‘the docent’s wingback chair has been pushed up against the wall of the gallery and is ever-so-slightly obscuring our view of the world-famous artwork’ or ‘the apple cores also went into the manufacture of applesauce’ or ‘a new era of pioneering, a new concept of modular homesteading’ or ‘canned pears are available’ or ‘aerobics is still the in thing’ or ‘let’s not clean out the utility shed, Susan, let’s not ever clean out the utility shed’ or ‘Oscar is a cool and worthwhile and motivational puppet’ or ‘the silver medal was truly not worth all the years of hard work and sacrifice’ or ‘browsing the new DVD releases is like my way of interfacing with wildlife.’
