The True Meaning of Pie

I wrote to a friend: "Enjoy life while you can, I say. Love your family. Make good food. Walk in nature and look at the sky. Sail that boat. Bake that strawberry pie. Hug that loved person. And build memories that you can take with you when the darkness descends. Ugh this is a grim philosophy! But the pie is good."

My friend replies: "I will kiss my darling grandchildren, have wonderful walks and talks with my daughter, tease my dear son-in-law, tell all my friends how much I appreciate them, and never ever turn down a piece of chocolate cake again!"

Later that day, I read this quote from Tolstoy: "I have lived through much and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good and who are not accustomed to have it done to them. Then work, which one hopes may be of some use. Then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor -- such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps -- what more can the heart of man desire?"

Pie, I say. Pie!

And another Russian writer, Pasternak, writes in Doctor Zhivago,"Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!"

The Zen master tells the young novice the path to true enlightenment: "Chop wood. Carry water."

Bake pie. Sleep well. :-)