EL BRUJO: a Shaman and the Four Professors: a 2-act play (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

A two-act play. Four university professors invite a brujo to explain shamanism. He guides them into an alive, creative world which turns out to be both seductive and dangerous. He uses guided fantasies to help them explore the nature of reality and their true identity. Scene One As usual, the bi-weekly meeting is held at night in Ralph’s study. Ralph, Jean, Bill and Johnny sit around a circular table sipping an Australian Merlot Johnny recently discovered. Glen Gould is playing an early Mozart sonata softly in the background. Bookshelves full of books line the walls, and research papers are piled here and there. Not much color in the room---mostly tans and grays. Ralph is a big bear, who much prefers to go along to get along. The woman, Jean, is slender and has the look and manner of a bird of prey. Bill is tall, serious, self- satisfied, and has very sharp fangs. Johnny prides himself on being open-minded and able to see all sides of an argument, and is intolerant of those who cannot. RALPH A toast to our newest full-professor. (All raise glasses to Jean) No one deserves it more. Your book analyzing the effectiveness of different therapies on rape victims was outstanding. May the power and glory lie softly upon your shoulders. Or is the word lay? Never could keep them straight. (Everyone chuckles politely.) JEAN Thank you. I’m so lucky to have such decent people as friends. They are so hard to find these days. RALPH You had something Johnny? JOHNNY Yes. I want to bring a guest to our next meeting. A magical man who will amaze and delight. BILL (Rolls his eyes.) I don’t know Johnny. That theologian you brought last time didn’t exactly amaze and delight. JOHNNY You and Jean were all over that poor guy. JEAN We were just testing his sainthood---he didn’t pass. I didn’t know faces could get that red. (Laughter.) JOHNNY Well, the man I want to bring isn’t a saint either, but I doubt you can get his face red. He’s not a theologian, not a philosopher not a scientist. He’s a shaman, a brujo from the Sonoran desert. JEAN Johnny, you got to be kidding. Is he like Castaneda’s creepy character? Or just an old fashioned guru, gulling the gullible? JOHNNY (Laughs but is becoming irritated.) That is for you to decide. I just hope he can get past your iron-plated skull. JEAN (Said with a slight trace of condescension) No problem if there is any merit in what he has to say. But I don’t waste time on nonsense. And neither should you. JOHNNY How can you judge an idea with such certainty before you even hear it? JEAN You play the odds. You know in advance that ideas coming from some people are just not worth wasting your precious neurons. RALPH I felt sorry for that poor theologian. We never gave him much of a chance. JEAN He didn’t deserve a chance. He still lives in the middle ages. And this shaman still lives in a cave, somewhere far out in the wilderness of the Sonoran desert. Stones talk to him as he walks by, and the friendly crows he meets are smarter than he is. JOHNNY And now the stones are dead, and crows are just big, black birds. Science sucked the magic and mystery out of life, and left us with what? JEAN Your safe, easy life for starters. You’d rather eat cactus grubs and live in a cave? JOHNNY Some days that is exactly what I’d like to do. But you’re right. I love my computer and early morning coffee too much for that. And so sad, I lost the magic and wonder of my childhood a long time ago. I know how T. S. Eliot felt when he wrote, “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think they will sing for me.”