The Doubt and Fear of Sharing Creative Works
For the past two years I have been working on a documentary film about pie and how deeply it is woven into Iowa’s culture. It’s my first film and it’s been a self-taught crash course in filmmaking, as I’ve had to learn every step of the process along the way. I am finally at the […]
Seeking Food and Fellowship on Pi Day
Pi Day is tomorrow, March 14. That’s pi as in 3.14, the irrational number with an infinite number of digits that never repeat. Used to calculate circumference, it’s represented by the Greek symbol p, and, much to my and other people’s happiness—even those of us who are bad a math—it’s caught on as a day […]
Be a Lighthouse Like Patti
Grief has struck again. I just lost my closest friend in Iowa, Patti Durflinger, to cancer. I was by no means Patti’s only close friend, she was a good and true friend to countless others. She was also a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a sister, and a daughter. She was a lighthouse, living her […]
Need Hope? Jane Goodall Will Give You Some
This post originally aired as a commentary on Tri States Public Radio. To listen, go here. Author E.B. White once said, “I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.” For me, planning my day is never the […]
Forget First or Second, I Am Third
(You can also listen to this on Tri States Public Radio) I hear myself saying a little too often these days that I’m glad I grew up when I did, before cell phones and selfies. Before the internet became a runaway train of disinformation. Before being famous was valued more than being a good person. […]
The Right Books at the Right Time
Sometimes you come across exactly the right book at exactly the right time. A year ago, when I was in a funk and had lost my way, along with my sense of purpose, I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s book “Big Magic.” In it, she poses the question: “What is it you love doing so much that […]
Stay Calm and Bake Pie — Episode 7: A Celebration of YOUR Pies
Episode 7 of “Stay Calm and Bake Pie” is here. It may be my favorite one, because it’s a celebration of all the pies you’ve been making this month. After watching it, my friend Kee Kee (who you read more about below) texted me this: “When this pandemic started you told me you wanted to […]
Stay Calm and Bake Pie — Episode 3: Banana Cream Pie
My “Stay Calm and Bake Pie” series continues with episode 3, and my dad’s favorite pie: banana cream. A friend pointed out, “This is the first time I’ve heard your story where you didn’t talk about how your parents met.” That’s true. In fact, it’s a story that has become THE story of my pie […]
How I’m Dealing with the Pandemic (And Other Anxieties)
I want to get back to being a writer, to writing the book I started in early December, or to scrapping that and starting a new one, even just to blogging, but I’m too restless. Like most people, I am sitting in a prickly pear cactus field of fear and anxiety. With the world as […]
World Piece: A Humble, Homemade Film About Making Pie Around the World
During the summer of 2015, I traveled around the world making pie in 9 countries. At long last, I have gotten the story down, but not on paper as you would expect. Instead, I taught myself how to edit a film using iMovie. Forgive my amateur skills, but like I always say about making pie: […]