If you want to be satisfied in life.....
If you want to be satisfied in the moment.......
Then I suggest that you take time to understand the moment.
Not just spectacular episodes in life but....never mind, I'll just give an example.
Today it was 96 degrees and sticky in KleckoLand.
The neighborhood is dead, pretty much everybody is camped out in air conditioning or a body of water.
I decided to go to the gym, and to my surprise, there was a dozen, maybe 15 people there.
That's not typical for a Sunday afternoon.
While I was lifting, I noticed that over 1/2 the TV's (which are suspended from the ceiling) were set to the Twins / Royals game.
These 2 teams were playing today to see who would avoid being in last place in the American League Central.
Usually the gym has the volume turned off on the televisions, but for whatever reason the volume could be heard faintly on one of the sets placed towards the center of the gym.
Everybody was in the midst of their work out when all of a sudden we hear "WHAP" and then the roar of 50 thousand fans brave enough to sit in a blazing ballpark.
Now dude on the treadmill steps off and approaches the TV with the faint volume, chick on the elliptical joins him as well. Then me and a few others slowly walk over like zombies being pulled by magnets.
So now there's 6 or 7 of us standing there while Fox Sports shows a replay of the Twins back up catcher
Drew Butera circling the bases after hitting a go ahead home run.
Everybody in my little zombie pack had a big-big grin on their face.
At that moment I had to chuckle, like I said....come October when the World Series is taking place, nobody will even remember this moment that we just shared.....shoot, furthermore, there is a good chance by the time our pack falls asleep we'll have forgotten Mr. Butera's shot to left center.
But during that one specific moment, all of us shared a moment of joy. It was quite obvious, and even though none of us knew each other, and none of us spoke....there was something special about this fleeting event.
As I went back to the leg press machine, it occurred to me that baking is a lot like a Drew Butera home run.
By the time we get cleaned up, wash our dishes and get a chance to sit down....our baked goods are gone.
Chewed, swallowed and consumed.
It's not like every time you send a loaf of bread, or basket of muffins out to a table somebody is going to hand you a blue ribbon, or even give you a compliment for that matter.
I think to be a real baker, a level 10 baker, we need to have the foresight to disregard the lack of attention we are going to receive for feeding the people we love.
Sure, if you're lucky, you might get to bake a cake for your parents 50th anniversary, or your granddaughters baptism, but those moments are so few and far between.
But let me tell you guys a secret.
Even though none of those 7 people will go home and even remember to mention Drew Butera's home run or the eventual Twins victory...for a moment, a single fleeting moment, these people shared abject joy.
It makes me wonder how many smiles your baked goods have put on the faces of people that would never take the time to tell you how much they enjoyed a small portion of their life, where the fruits of your labor helped them grind through another day.
Bake on L.A.B. Rats
The Last American Baker
If you want to be satisfied in the moment.......
Then I suggest that you take time to understand the moment.
Not just spectacular episodes in life but....never mind, I'll just give an example.
Today it was 96 degrees and sticky in KleckoLand.
The neighborhood is dead, pretty much everybody is camped out in air conditioning or a body of water.
I decided to go to the gym, and to my surprise, there was a dozen, maybe 15 people there.
That's not typical for a Sunday afternoon.
While I was lifting, I noticed that over 1/2 the TV's (which are suspended from the ceiling) were set to the Twins / Royals game.
These 2 teams were playing today to see who would avoid being in last place in the American League Central.
Usually the gym has the volume turned off on the televisions, but for whatever reason the volume could be heard faintly on one of the sets placed towards the center of the gym.
Everybody was in the midst of their work out when all of a sudden we hear "WHAP" and then the roar of 50 thousand fans brave enough to sit in a blazing ballpark.
Now dude on the treadmill steps off and approaches the TV with the faint volume, chick on the elliptical joins him as well. Then me and a few others slowly walk over like zombies being pulled by magnets.
So now there's 6 or 7 of us standing there while Fox Sports shows a replay of the Twins back up catcher
Drew Butera circling the bases after hitting a go ahead home run.
Everybody in my little zombie pack had a big-big grin on their face.
At that moment I had to chuckle, like I said....come October when the World Series is taking place, nobody will even remember this moment that we just shared.....shoot, furthermore, there is a good chance by the time our pack falls asleep we'll have forgotten Mr. Butera's shot to left center.
But during that one specific moment, all of us shared a moment of joy. It was quite obvious, and even though none of us knew each other, and none of us spoke....there was something special about this fleeting event.
As I went back to the leg press machine, it occurred to me that baking is a lot like a Drew Butera home run.
By the time we get cleaned up, wash our dishes and get a chance to sit down....our baked goods are gone.
Chewed, swallowed and consumed.
It's not like every time you send a loaf of bread, or basket of muffins out to a table somebody is going to hand you a blue ribbon, or even give you a compliment for that matter.
I think to be a real baker, a level 10 baker, we need to have the foresight to disregard the lack of attention we are going to receive for feeding the people we love.
Sure, if you're lucky, you might get to bake a cake for your parents 50th anniversary, or your granddaughters baptism, but those moments are so few and far between.
But let me tell you guys a secret.
Even though none of those 7 people will go home and even remember to mention Drew Butera's home run or the eventual Twins victory...for a moment, a single fleeting moment, these people shared abject joy.
It makes me wonder how many smiles your baked goods have put on the faces of people that would never take the time to tell you how much they enjoyed a small portion of their life, where the fruits of your labor helped them grind through another day.
Bake on L.A.B. Rats
The Last American Baker
Oh, yes. This. The occasional private praise and public applause are indeed a treat, but the quiet smiles when they taste ... that's the wonder that makes it worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteThat scary moment when you only hear silence and you don't know if you have just screwed up bad or that they loved it...it's like a drug
ReplyDelete