lifebeyondexaggeration

Sometimes the biggest deal can happen over the smallest thing… like pie.

One of my summers in beautiful Alaska, our food situation got strange. There were issues with different companies, such as who owned what building, but the end of the mess found us all eating family dinner at the theatre every night. It was awesome! The chef for the theatre made us a special meal, and we didn’t even have to go anywhere for it!

A bit into the summer, the chef decided to give us a treat and ordered us some pies. And the pies became a bi-weeklyish tradition. They came in a variety pack. I don’t remember all the kinds, but I know that the one we liked best was the cookies and crème pie. We would save that one for last or use it for someone’s birthday. It was great, a super awesome treat we all looked forward to. Until the sad day the cookies and crème pie was missing.

We went to the walk in to get it, and it was gone. No pie, no box, nothing.

That day at company meeting, our manager gave us a talk.

Whoever had taken the pie needed to come forward. They could replace the pie, and all would be forgiven. Forgiven by management maybe, but not by the cast. It was our treat, our one treat in the Alaskan wilderness! There was sleuthing, and blaming.

Eventually, the conclusion was drawn that it was one of the dishwashers since they were the only ones alone in the building. But there was no way to prove which one. The next pie shipment came, and things got a bit lighter.

But the pie, the cookies and crème disappearance, took away a week of frivolity and friendship.

When something is a treat or a prize, you can’t underestimate the meaning it has to people. It becomes your light at the end of the tunnel. A thing to work toward. And when that gets snatched, morale crumbles… more quickly than the crust of a pie.