Point of View: Corn to Shuck
Two young women, Mormons as I learned, appeared at our door one late afternoon recently, and they were very pleasant even though I confessed I was no longer a churchgoer, which, of course, did not mean, I said, that I did not have a spiritual side.
What were we here for if not to help one another, I said, adding that, for me at least, the rest remained a mystery, though I did tend to side with my wife’s pantheism.
(The inner wise guy suggested I tell them that cleanliness was next only to godlessness in the Hamptons, but I held my tongue.)
And did they know, by the way, that Joseph Campbell (with whom they were not familiar) had discovered that the myths in which many of us still believe, including the one about a divine mother and a resurrected son, were not only shared by all civilizations, but dated back thousands of years, long before Christ?
They gave me a book outlining God’s plan for me and their card. I thanked them. The neighborhood, I said, was about half year round, half summer. We shook hands, said goodbye, and they walked away, to knock at another door, and I went back to wondering what it was all about, before remembering that I should shuck the corn for dinner.
What was it the Zen monk said? “Miraculous power and marvelous activity — drawing water and hewing wood!”
Or shucking corn.
It is one of summer’s gifts, a gift of Demeter, goddess of the cornfield, who would have forbidden it and the fruit and herbs to grow had not Zeus agreed to let her daughter, Persephone, spend nine months of the year with her on earth and three in the company of her abductor, Hades.
All in all a good deal, you’ll agree, so let’s shuck it while we can.