Try this guessing game

I’d like to share it with you a little test suggested by W.S. Merwin…

Blindfold yourself with some suitable object. If time permits remain still for a moment. You may feel one or more of your senses begin to swim back toward you in the darkness. Meanwhile, have someone arrange the food items used in the test in front of you. It is preferable to have them in identical containers, but it is by no means necessary. Perform the test by having the other person feed you a portion — a spoonful — of each product without comment.

Guess what each one is and have the other person write down what you say.

Remove the blindfold. While arranging the products in front of you the other person should have detached part of the label from each and placed it in front of the product, like a title. This bit of legend must not include the product’s trade name, generic name, or any suggestion of the product’s price or desirability.  It should be limited to the actual components of the compound in question.

For instance:

“Contains dextrinized flours, cocoa processed with alkali, non-fat milk solids, yeast nutrients, vegetable oils, powdered whey, modified food starch, BHA, BHT, propylene glycol, pectin, niacin amide, artificial color, ascorbic acid to retard mold growth, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bi-sulfite, beef extract, 1/10 of 1% of sodium benzoate to retard spoilage, imitation lemon oil, acetyl tartaric esters on mono-and triglycerides as emulsifiers.”

Have the other person rearrange the products used in the test. Taste again without the blindfold. Guess again and have the other person record the answers.

Replace the blindfold one last time. Have the other person rearrange the products again and feed you another spoonful of each.

Guess again, but do not stop there. Guess why you are eating it. Guess what it might do to you. Guess what it was meant to do for you. By whom. Where. Why.

Guess when in the course of development you took the first step toward it. Guess which of your organs recognizes it.

Guess whether it is welcome.

Guess how it figures in your prayers. Guess how completely you become what you eat. Guess how soon.

Guess at the taste of wild honey. Guess at the taste of water.

Guess what rivers see when they die. Guess why babies are crying. Guess why there is silence in heaven.

Guess why you were ever born.