Redheads and tobacco

A meeting

Chapter 13 Red Heads and Tobacco

“We did a focus interview with one of their shamans,” Karen said. Charles lit up in surprise.

“It was so interesting. This guy knew what we were doing with the study and said its the work of the world spirit.” She continued.

“I missed that,” Charles said with regret, referring to insight that he might have gained from a Nanticoke shaman.

“Well,” Karen quickly moved to lift Charles's mood. “It gave us a tremendous perspective on the issues, but I'm not sure how much of that we can use. Its totally unsubstantiated.”

“For example?” Charles asked.

“Okay,” she leaned back on the chair to recall. When she spoke, she did it with a subtle smile. “On the food issue. he said that the tribe preparation of the food would include drying corn and scrubbing off the corn germ. Its the seed that develops the corn plant. Like whole meal bread, the seed in the cereal has the effect, when consumed, of exercising an impact on the mind of the individual. It contains the DNA of the cereal and blah....blah.....blah it combines with the human reproductive experience to stimulate our own thinking, sometimes too strongly, creating a loss of self will in the individual.”

Charles stared at her, without comment. Her flaming red hair was kept short and it tossed about like the ocean of tea in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

They were in the cafeteria and the noise from the other students was building up and drowning out their voices. Yet they remained there in discussion on very specific areas of their study. Charles felt good about being able to combine some of their deep discoveries with the everyday life of activities.

The noise helped to mitigate the sensation that made Charles feel like an excavator with women, in general, creating a probing attitude, so that they can come to verbalize their thoughts into communication. At other times, he thought, they always made him feel like a child. In response, the male attitude in him, tried to compensate by turning into a narcissistic vanity about himself. On balance, he figured, he would rather be treated like a child and deal with it.

“We could use that,” Charles suggested. He wasn't sure if the Nanticoke did the same thing with their corn, but he could check.

“Not in the survey. There's no data support.”

“Okay, we could report it as observation.”

“I guess,” she seemed to be saying. “Okay, with the data on types of food consumed?”

“We had a large number on a diet of hamburgers.” Charles recalled.

“Yeah, same here,” she said. She relaxed a little and Charles realized that even the women moved into narcissistic tendencies as defense.

They turned their attention to the sandwiches on the table.

“What do you think happened when they migrated to the plains and the south?” Charles suddenly declared like he had an epiphany.

“Food and water sources,” she suggested. “ Have you found anything on the reasons for the breakaway groups.”

“Too profound a cultural orientation in the beginning, when the mind is identified with the bigger aspect of what they were in the metaphorical. Its the same experience in the cultivation of the East Indian experience. They settled at the Indus and found their societies growing too patriarchal with metaphorical power structures. They broke away to the Ganges where they reorganized themselves in the mahajnanapada experience for a greater experience of physical reality.”

“The legend of the mahabarata? She intoned. Charles nodded.

“Its a cultural evolution of experiences,” she said looking at the table with a frown. “Whatever group discovers something new, it always brought it back to the previous group to share in the advancement. It is an imperative in the oneness experience.”

“ It relied on practices of mother worship to unite themselves again after the previous fracas,”Charles was thinking out loud. “Hence the transformation to child qualities to create the acceptance.”

They paused.

“I'm going back to Delaware to record the observation on food,” Charles informed.

“Same here,” she replied.

They arose and walked through the cafeteria, amidst the keen looks on the faces of the students. Outside, the clear blue skies of Southern California greeted them like an aphrodisiac for all ailments.

“There's talk that you might be leaving at the end of the semester,” she asked.

He confirmed it.

“Its been quite an experience for me to come to realize the implications of the east Indian experience. I never gave it much capital until recently. I figured I might take up a deeper look at the issues.”

Then as an after thought, he asked. “How's mother doing.”

“She's into gemstones or something.....how Ireland actually represented a crystal like experience on her thoughts. She keeps worrying about you. She told me to tell you to reduce your smoking.”

“Tell her I'll be coming around before I go to India,” he said.

He kissed his sister on the cheek and walked alone to the car park. He turned on the ignition, put it into gear and took off for his apartment.

Reviews

[patricia]

I know I have read this chapter before as well, I wonder if I just wrote the review on my notepad before typing it on here. What a drag.
Loved the paragraph about Charles feeling like an excavator.
Thanks.