Pears

It is possible a majority of the voluminous “Confessions” of Saint Augustine was a catharsis the man was promulgating from having eaten one stolen pear as a youth – which demonstrates the firm grasp he had on the gravity of even one transgression.  He also exposed the depth of his seething lustful passions even describing his infatuation with certain curves of flank, which were, ironically, probably pear-shaped, which seems to be the ideal, or idealized, shape for women throughout most of history (except for the last few decades or so, which due to magazines that feature heroin addicts as the ‘ideal’, the new shape must be ‘broomstick’).  Pears are not just good for giving nominal reference to certain objects with distinct shapes, however, but also as serving as subjects for painting, apparently, though almost always as “still life” and not ‘dynamic life’ (except in Rene Magritte’s “Son of Man” painting with the falling pear in front of the man’s face…or was that hovering apple?).  The fruit that graced the silver platter of royalty and the wealthy in Medieval Europe was and is sold in the commonplace market in Latin America for the equivalent of a few pennies.  Of course, this has to do supply and demand and availability, but it would be interesting to know if church history would have been significantly different if pears grew more, or less, readily in North Africa where Augustine committed his famous crime.