Gods Enough To Go Around

In 2010 I was working with Robert Hollander, the distinguished writer, professor, Dante scholar and translator of The Divine Comedy, on a book that was later published as The Elements of Grammar in 90 Minutes. The project looked stalled at the publisher’s, but when I asked Sri Lord Ganesha, Blessed be He, to intervene, at once it became unstuck. We had the following e-mail exchange.

DP: I consulted Lord Ganesha when this project looked stuck and asked Him to intervene. Next thing we know they responded with better terms than we asked for. Jai Ganapati! His trunkprint is all over that.

RH: Maybe he’ll help with the final version? And the marketing?

DP: In the City Palace in Udaipur, Rajasthan, I saw an icon of Lord G. with the motto: “You do best; he does rest.” So we’ll probably have to do the revision ourselves. Marketing, on the other hand, perhaps He can help with ‒ His specialty is removing obstacles. I never heard of Dante’s Christian god helping anyone get a book contract. Jai Ganapati!

RH: Without D’s Xian God, no Divine Comedy; w/o DC, no annotated translation; Xian God as good as Ganesha. We see if him make royalties as much as Christian God.

I replied with this poem.

Gods Enough To Go Around

Gods enough to go around,
Gods for twenty cents a pound.
Some like the man god who hangs on the tree;
Some like the elephant god who helps you and me.
Some like the rain god who brings in the corn,
Who dies and is buried and is then reborn.
Some find god looking deep within;
Some find god in a bottle of gin.
Some find god inside a book,
But God is everywhere you look.
   Shave and a haircut,
   Amen.