"In the beginning..." according to the Mayan creation story from the Popol Vuh (the Mayan bible), it took the gods three times to successfully create humans.
1. First try - they made us of dirt. We only spoke "nonsense" (dumb as dirt?), so they let us dissolve. Doh! (parallel this with the creation story from Genesis in the Bible).
2. Second try - they made us of wood. Nope. We just walked around and got nothing done. Wild animals chased us into the forest where we became monkeys (this is why monkeys kind of look like humans - interesting twist on evolution, huh?)
3. Third try - they make us of corn. Success!! "Our flesh is yellow and white ears of maize..." Finally, the perfect being.
The Maize God is the most sacred of deities - get this...it's because he gave his flesh so that humans may live. Is God BIG, or what?The Maya refer to themselves as people born of a different flesh ("true people"), and I wouldn't doubt if it were actually true based on the amount of corn they consume daily. The average Mayan's diet consists of 50-60% corn (although there are apparently close to 400 different corn-related recipes they use to keep things exciting). Corn tortillas, the real thick, small kind, make an appearance at every meal (God, if I never see another corn tortilla again...), which is why you can't look in any direction this time of year without seeing a corn field.
Here it comes again! Farmers plant the corn during March and April, and then comes the rain (for 6 months), which produces some crazy-mutant-sized cornstalks. "We eat all we can and sell the rest."Hope you're all well and received HUGE tax-refunds! (subliminal message ~ send a chunk of it to your favorite charity ~)
Love,
Jay
ps - a friend here just told me that she tried corn-flavored ice-cream last week. Yum?
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