HOW DID SHE KNOW?

In the 60s, when I was involved with drugs, Jackie called them hallucinogens—that’s a psychological, reductionistic statement. They’re actually psychedelic, mind manifesting chemicals. When ah—you have to be true to all lovers. When I was speaking, and they were all, all the people came to see me were dressed in white and they all had flowers, and they all smiled a lot. It was sort of the outward symbol of something that yet, full of kind of anger and stuff— they had a lot of work to do on themselves, as we all still do. I think we recognize in this Congress. 

And I was speaking to this group of people, and I was I assumed they had all either been to India or read holy books or taken drugs. And there was a woman down in the front row who was perhaps in her 70s and she had a hat on with little strawberries and cherries and things like that, and she had a black patent leather bag and a pink dress and responsible looking Oxford shoes on. And I assume somebody had brought their grandmother. And so I was a little uncomfortable, but I would say these outrageous things that only those of us that knew, knew. And she would nod. And I thought, how does she know? And I thought, maybe she has a nervous tick in her neck. You know, I was watching to see how she could know. Why was she saying it? So I’d say something more outrageous than she’d nod again. By the end of the lecture, I was absolutely fascinated with who this woman was. So I kind of smiled at her a lot until she came up and then she said to me, oh, thank you so much, That all made perfect sense. That’s just the way I understand it to be. And I said, how do you know? What have you done that has prepared you to understand this? And she leaned forward very conspiratorially, and she said, “I crochet.”