high-bar baking

The first time I read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, I (understandably) thought it was just about writing. No broader metaphor to be had. Despite it saying so on the cover. 

I thought the advice was just for writers, about sitting down every day and suffering through starting. And doing. And finishing. About rocking back and forth like a large child, hopeless and neurotic and paranoid. I suppose not hopeless, though. Because that’s why they sit down, writers. An ultimate instantiation of trusting the process. Hope that if you sit down long enough, show up consistently enough, work hard enough, that that elusive beast “inspiration” will strike. Or that the words will at least flow with less pain than the pulling of teeth. 

I opened the book because I needed to hear that. That it wasn’t just me. That nobody wants to start in the morning (a rare somebody, maybe?). But that people do anyway. People who go on to write books that people want to read. Or maybe code that will eventually make it into production. 

That showing up matters. Maybe not today, or tomorrow. But all those days strung together. 

Because that’s the kind of person you want to be. Even if today you don’t. Today you verymuch don’t. Because it’s Monday, and you had three months to write the bird report and you didn’t. And it’s due tomorrow. 

And the only way to make any progress at all is to take it bird by bird. 

I try to judge baked goods in a strict yes/no fashion, no equivocating. But I’m not perfect. My note on Sarah’s crumb cake is that Preppy Kitchen’s is better, unless for some reason you need a 9×13 crumb cake. And specifically a crumb cake. Else what are you doing, not making the Two Chicks coffeecake? 

The other reason, I guess, would be that this (perfectly fine, not great) specimen uses 6 egg whites. Lord knows we are always trying to get rid of those things. 

All good things in life use egg yolks. Take notes.