“Because IQ tests favor memory skills and logic, overlooking artistic creativity, insight, resiliency, emotional reserves, sensory gifts, and life experience, they can't really predict success, let alone satisfaction.”
Diane Ackerman, An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain
Shucking corn together is a habit in our family- something known as a little people's "job". Usually, they chat and sing as they peel back the layers to reveal the cornsilk.
It's not just about being together and talking, a form of communion (though it includes much of that), but also makes for great metaphors ("how peeling back layers leads to new treasures"). Not to mention the context it provides for many of the books we read about rural and local history where barn raisings and harvests involve activities that create and solidify community.
Activities like corn-shucking give us a tiny taste of communal life- a life in which everyone helps and lends a hand, a life in which the greater good is truly greater than any immediate gratifications we wish to pursue. As a mother, I relish those things we learn which draw us closer to one another and build a structure for happiness pursued in conjunction with others.
