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Reflection for the week of June 6th

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Xingu

The prosperity attained by Americans over the recent past has allowed many to expand their cultural horizons. Works on self-improvement, Zen, Native American cosmology, Taoism and the like appeal to us from bookstore windows. Bestseller fiction and non-fiction have become a must among people who want to keep up with their educated peers. The Luncheon Club of Hillbridge - in Edith Wharton's delightful story "Xingu" - held periodic gatherings at which several ladies of this upscale community discussed the latest elevating publications. And this week they were lucky to have landed Miss Osric Dane to guide them through her latest work titled "The Way of Death".

Prior to the arrival of their distinguished guest the members were still evaluating their newest member Mrs. Roby. The latter did not seem serious enough for their taste. Indeed she never had read any of Miss Dane's books because just when she reached for one on a recent boating expedition in Brazil it fell overboard. When Mrs. Roby arrived, however, it was almost simultaneous with the arrival of Osric Dane and so the luncheon and discourse immediately got under way.

Miss Dane had a petulant air. She gave the impression she'd rather be elsewhere. Her impatience was evident in her reluctance to engage in conversation. When a Club member told her of her interest in ethics, Miss Dane replied, "What ethics?" When another said she admired Osric Dane's objective way of writing, she responded, "What do you mean by objective?" Soon the members became hesitant to say anything. And then Mrs. Roby spoke up. She informed Miss Dane of how interested she and her fellow Club members were in the subject of Xingu and how Xingu seemed to saturate her works. "We're . . . anxious to know just how it was that you went into Xingu." Nobody would admit they knew nothing about Xingu but seeing Miss Dane suddenly disoriented the other Club members lined up behind Mrs. Roby. Of course, Mrs. Roby admitted Xingu was a pretty deep subject; not something you could skip through. And its many branches complicated the matter.

But then, having initiated the topic, Mrs. Roby suddenly had to leave because of another engagement. No sooner did she start out than the now curious Osric Dane jumped up and said, "Oh wait. I'll go with you!" So now the Club members were left sitting alone. Some began to chuckle over the way Mrs. Roby's introduction of Xingu had relieved their embarrassment and put their guest on the spot. But soon they had to admit their own pretense regarding Xingu and resented Mrs. Roby's superiority in this regard. Finally they decided to look up Xingu in the encyclopedia first under Z and then under X- and there it was: "The Xingu, one of the principal rivers of Brazil, flows in a northerly direction for one thousand miles" before entering the Amazon at its mouth.

The ladies were stupefied. Then someone said, "she did speak of its having branches" and "it was awfully deep, and you couldn't skip - you just had to wade through." Another remembered how Mrs. Roby had once dropped Miss Dane's "The Supreme Instant" into a river and didn't she go on to say how "one of her books was simply saturated with Xingu?"

The story ends with the president expelling Mrs. Roby from the Luncheon Club. And the moral of the story seems to be: if you intend to indulge your interest in things like Zen or Taoism or the Gnostic Gospels or William Blake or Emily Dickinson or - for that matter - the Old and New Testaments, don't make a pretense of it. Settle for no shallow survey of the subject; take it seriously, don't skip about - lest you wind up feeling like you're treading water in some vast, primeval river of Brazil.

-- Geoff Wood