Mushrooms are our most common way of thinking about the Kingdom Fungi. We are also likely to call a mushroom a plant, whereas genetic comparisons place fungi closer to man than to plants.

In other words, the DNA in fungi more closely resembles the DNA of the inhabitants of the animal kingdom. We are nearly 100% alike as humans and equally closely related to mushrooms. Only a few tiny changes in our DNA structure set us apart, giving us our variations in eye, skin, and hair color. We are technically all related and we are similar to the mushroom. Some fungi can even move or seem to crawl. No plant can do that, but we can. This motility is achieved through flagella, a tail that whips just like the sperm cell. These are cells that have motility.

This brings to mind a reason to better understand what we are on this earth. We evolved from a single celled being, from ancient microbes actually that were either here to begin with or that landed here in the bombardment of space debris. There are even the same ancient living things surviving here in extreme hot and cold temperatures that we sprung from. It's a very long story and not one easily told.

The idea is to keep an open mind and to become thirsty for knowledge. It changes everything. It can be blissful not knowing what's going on around you and just believing what you are told. It takes real risk and bravery to venture beyond all of that and see what else is "out there." If you did not know that mushrooms (fungi) are more closely related to us than to plants, what else don't you know? Eye openers (mind openers) are everywhere. Look further.

I took this photo near my home during the summer, growing from the root of a white pine. It looks and feels like the ears of a pig.