From my friend Will on Facebook:
"Fungi breathe oxygen, eat other things, digest, and respire CO2, just like us. Many live in partnership with plants and animals, mediating the breakdown and direction of nutrient flow in natural ecosystems. Some even produce chemicals very similar to mammalian neurochemistry. Mushrooms are amorphous, spore-producing, animal-like networks that may or may not ponder their own existence."
And a retort from his friend: "If soil is the heaven trees root their dreams in, then think of it; fungi must be angels."