Sheryl Green: Who doesn't love a good pie?

Ask my across-the-hall neighbor what she can hear coming out of my classroom every morning before the sun is up and while the hallways are still eerily silent, and she'll respond about my whistling or singing several go-to songs that methodically get stuck in my head on a sadly consistent basis.

One of my staples is the jingle from the Sara Lee bakeries: "Nobody does it like Sara Lee."

Or, at least that's what I've been singing for decades, until I recently sat at a red light next to a Sara Lee delivery truck. As the truck pulled ahead, I saw the real slogan: "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee."

Well, I began to question everything I've been singing for all these years! What did Michael Jackson mean in his lyrics, "Ma ma se, ma ma sa, Ma ma coo sa"? What if we all really did live in a yellow submarine? What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's all about?

But there is no questioning the truth of the slogan. Who doesn't love a good pie?

Blueberry pie is the analogy that Wynnton Arts Academy Media Specialist Mary Thompson recently used to encourage and inspire her elementary school co-workers in what they do every year, every day.

They make pie.

Cleverly, she told of the adoration she and her young family have for picking fresh blueberries. "We look carefully through all the bushes, picking just the right berry, perfectly round and bright blue or purple with no bruises."

They leave behind the ones unpicked for too long and certainly ignore those not ripe enough or victim to the bite of a bug. They tiptoe around the ones squished on the ground, filling their buckets with just the right berries.

At home, the family "meticulously goes through them again, throwing out any that got into the bucket by accident," or discarding the half-squished ones her Thompson's youngest child added to the collection.

Her point is well taken. Mrs. Thompson reveals the way we teachers are given a different pint of blueberries every year, but we simply cannot meticulously go through them and pick only the delightful ones out, reserving them for something bigger and better.

"Sometimes," she says to her fellow teachers, "the ones with the bruises have a story to tell; the ones on the ground survived being stepped on and squished. The ones who aren't quite ripe enough to pick are just perfect for making pie, and some of those blueberries just needed a few more days to ripen."

Life would be grand if we could pick and choose which people lived next door to us, who our mother-in-law is, who sits in the cubicle beside us, or which students fill our desks.

But we can't.

So, all of us are left with a decision to make. We either become like Ebenezer Scrooge, a grumpy old man in isolation and unhappiness, or we become more like Mrs. Thompson and make some pie.

Take a lesson from a teacher. We do it all the time.

The blueberry-picking media specialist ends her moment of motivation with a juicy charge: "Enjoy them, preserve them, watch them ripen, and for goodness sake, make some pie out of them! Because, let's face it... who doesn't love a good pie?!"

I agree, Mrs. Thompson. Nobody doesn't like a good pie.

Thanks for encouraging us all.

-- Sheryl Green is an independent contractor. Contact her at sherylgreen14@yahoo.com

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 10:55 PM with the headline "Sheryl Green: Who doesn't love a good pie? ."