The question that begs is: what was the intention behind this secret millionaire’s message, and just who is the man that, despite the trappings of extreme wealth, has pared his life down to an almost monastic existence? With a little further digging from this reporter, the conclusion could be drawn that Mr Mulberry is, in fact, a man who’s come as close as anyone (and closer than most) to achieving genuine enlightenment, and he’s walking the talk of his existential principles.

To understand his ethos, we perhaps need to look at the significance of the graffiti itself. There’s some contention over the quote’s provenance and its original intended connotations, but it’s generally accepted to mean that, regardless of a person’s status, they fundamentally have the right to look at another person of a higher status, whether that person likes it or not. Ergo (perhaps), everyone has a right to aspire to elevate themselves to the highest echelons of this earthly life.

The (ten) million-pound question, then, is this: is Danny Mulberry the cat or the king in this equation? Herein lies the genius, because by positioning himself at an elite address in the middle of one of London’s most affluent suburbs, then choosing to live in the garden shed, Mulberry is proving his point in the most tangible of ways. At the same time, he is giving a (now) not-so-subtle two fingers up to the Establishment that traditionally reserves the right to this kind of home ownership for the wealthy and privileged.

According to one of Mr Mulberry’s trusted inner circle, his philosophy is simple: we all have the power to determine our own future by the choices we make in our present. The source said Mr Mulberry has dedicated his own life to helping people find their authentic higher purpose, developing its full potential, and equipping them with the power to make good choices and above all exercising their free will without fear or regret. The friend went on to say that Danny Mulberry’s capacity and enthusiasm to exercise his own free will signal the extent of his own personal enlightenment. But they stressed that Mulberry himself claims to be no different from everyone else, merely ‘a little further along the path in his journey’, believing that no matter who we are or what we’ve done previously, while the past is useful for our personal growth it shouldn’t inform the choices we make going forward.

It’s this sense of responsibility to nurture the concept that we can all decide what and who we want to be that appears to drive Mulberry’s desire to help guide others towards discovering freedom, self-respect, self-awareness, and the courage to choose their own meaning, identity and existence.

Lofty ambitions from a man who lives in a shed, you might say, but this reporter, for one, doesn’t think this is the last piece of wisdom we’re going to hear from this enigmatic modern-day philosopher – or, dare we say it, guru.

19

Danny

When I’d finished reading Pete’s story, which contained precious little truth but, I suspected, quite a lot of plagiarised and uncited internet research, I sat there with the printout on my lap for a very long time. Then I folded it neatly in half, placed it on my milk crate table and went back to bed.