Corn Equity

There is nothing easy about sweet corn.  If you are not familiar with this delicacy, you will just have to trust me - it is one of the few greatest pleasures of my life.  I count down the days until the new crop comes out each year; but, gathering and processing it involves lots of work!

To begin with, I think I am slightly allergic.  When I am standing in the corn, I can hear my throat wheeze a little; but I remind myself "Keep your eyes on the prize, Karl."  Depending on your tolerance for bugs, you may or may not be annoyed by the mosquitoes, flies, gnats and whatever else flies and crawls around a corn field.  This usually amounts to me rescuing Laura when I hear the screams of "It's in my hair - It's in my hair!" as she darts out of the field entirely.  

Sweet corn harvest is during the hottest time of the year (late July).  Every time I bend over, my glasses slide down - then, when I straighten up, sweat runs in my eyes.  The buckets of corn are heavy - there is dust and weeds and itchiness!  And, that's just in the field.  After wrestling the buckets into the car, we still have to "put up" the corn at home.  Oh, and I usually say "I shouldn't have lifted that" at least once during the process.

Putting up corn amounts to blanching the corn and either cutting it off the cob or just bagging the "roasting" ears whole for later use.  No matter what precautions you take, the kitchen will be trashed!  I mean trashed when you get done.  The thin "silks" will on everything - the floor will be sticky and there will be little corn nuggets EVERYWHERE!    

So why do we do it?  Why so much work for 50 or 60 tiny little bags of corn?  The answer: fast forward to January 15th, when there is snow on the ground and you've just whipped up some enchilada soup and the thought hits you "Wow, you know what would go great with this?   Some sweet corn."  It is even sweeter in January than it was in July!

Without the investment, we can't enjoy the reward.  Consider an alternate example.  What if I just went to the field and gorged myself - made my self happy every day of the short harvest season?  The corn I could consume would fill me for a few hours; but I have to come back.  I would probably spend about the same amount of hours in the corn field; but in the end, I would have nothing stored up for the days ahead. 

Even though we quickly recognize that scenario as foolish, we often life our lives in a consumer mentality.  We consume what feels good, we spend money before we earn it, we spend more than we earn, and we rarely think about creating equity in our lives.  Equity usually refers to stocks or companies having value; but, the only way to create value in our lives is to invest in the things that matter.  Any time we spend what we have not earned, we create a deficit - a debt that must be repaid with interest.  Conversely, when we sacrifice now (spend less, save money, exercise) we create equity that pays "dividends." 

I hope we all can put up some corn in our life this week.  The super delicious kind and the figurative kind such as: exercise, eating right, saving money, working hard and making tough decisions.  Build some equity - January is coming!