THE PIE SOCIALIST

"You like pie? I like pie."

That's a quote from Barack Obama, and although I admit I don't see eye to eye with our current president, we at least see pie to pie.

Coincidentally, President's Day just passed and I cannot tell a lie. I did not make a cherry pie in honor of George Washington and his proverbial cherry tree. But I did plan another pie social to share my most recent pie recipes. My guest list is varied and perhaps a bit politically charged. Our town's House Representative and his wife are invited and a couple of other friends on the opposite side of the political spectrum are included as well. If I "left" them off the guest list, would that be "right"? My debate-loving husband wouldn't want a bunch of ditto-heads in the same room. How boring would that be, and for heaven's sake, the whole house might tip "right" over! But will mixing pie and politics be a recipe for disaster?

I think if we put a conservative lid on our opinions and add a liberal dose of friendship and understanding, we might discover that pies can be the ties that bind. Pie could very well be the mediating force between the right and the left where we all meet in the middle. And let's be as honest as Abe here, too. We'll all probably expand in the middle as well!

Speaking of presidents and politics, I found an interesting tidbit about John Tyler, our 10th president. A pie was named after him. Tyler Pie has its heritage in the south and its few simple ingredients create a smooth caramel pudding encased in a pastry crust. President Tyler loved pudding and this economical recipe was often served to his fourteen children. I am warmed by the thought of his large family gathered around the dinner table, forks clanging, conversation buzzing, and slices of pie nourishing both bodies and souls of a tight-knit family.

One hundred and forty years later, Ronald Reagan hearkened back to the power of family gatherings and said, "All great change in America begins at the dinner table." A major part of my 50 pie resolution is to open my home and share my pies with friends. My nest is empty now and somehow life has gotten too hectic. I always seem too busy to entertain, to share the gift of hospitality. But my pies could open the door to more social times with long neglected friends who perhaps are victims themselves of busy schedules that prevent them from connecting with loved ones.

President George W. Bush waxed not so eloquent when he said, "We ought to make the pie higher." I can't recall what he was referencing, but I will apply it personally by answering to a higher calling to practice hospitality by hosting pie socials. It's high time we return to our humble roots and communicate as our forefathers did, in person over slices of delicious homemade pie.

I'm looking forward to my upcoming pie social and to planning many more. And feel free to call me, a freedom loving conservative, a socialist; a pie socialist, that is. Let's all gather to socialize and eat pie and maybe get as big as President Taft, because I like pie and you like pie and in a pie society, everyone sees eye to eye.