Hearts and Pasta: An Investigation
Pinhead Angel
By Burt Kempner
“No one is about to confuse the human heart with a bowl of pasta, although both can be deeply satisfying or terribly messy, depending on how they’re handled.” Burt Kempner
GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—2/11/2013—Place a large bowl of steaming spaghetti before us. Some people will attack it at once, leaving all restraint and decorum behind. But others will hold back and search intently for that one elusive strand that will lead them to unlock the code to spaghetti. Watch those men and women carefully. They will change the world
No one is about to confuse the human heart with a bowl of pasta, although both can be deeply satisfying or terribly messy, depending on how they’re handled. Some of us will be careless with our hearts and the hearts of others, pawing them roughly and abandoning them when they make the slightest demand. Others of us will spend their lives plumbing their inmost secrets, finding patterns where most see chaos, until they finally arrive at the heart of the heart. Watch those seekers carefully. They will save the world.
Burt Kempner
Burt Kempner has worked as a scriptwriter in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Florida. His work has won numerous major awards, and has been seen by groups ranging in size from a national television audience in the United States to a half-dozen Maori chieftains in New Zealand. His documentaries have appeared on PBS, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, CNBC, and European and Asian TV networks. He has two dogs, a cat, a wife and a son and is randomly kind to them all. More recently, Kempner has written three rather subversive books for children: Larry the Lazy Blue Whale, Monty the Movie Star Moose and The Five Fierce Tigers of Rosa Martinez. Visit his Amazon author page: amazon.com/author/burtkempner
4 Comments
Diane Jardel
A very interesting analogy comparing how we eat to how we follow our hearts.
I like to think I eat spaghetii like an Italian attacking it with relish, but only in the privacy of my home.
I guess that is how I treat life. I need to plunge into its depths.
Burt Kempner
Bon appetit, Diane!
robert cessaro
Ah, pasta. What delights come to mind when I think of pasta. The process of cooking uncountable recipes with a vast range of ingredients spanning centuries of cooks of all stripes, all prepared and ready for the final assembly when the pasta is brought steaming from the strainer, with more or less water retained depending on the tightness of the waiting sauce or condiment, mixed and as if by magic becomes something transformed upon the serving dish. A casual off hand toss of chopped parsley, a drizzle of olive oil, a scattering of basil, Parmigiano-Reggiano or some other bright flavor and it becomes love on a plate. And, as we all know, love can be so satisfying. As the cook in the house I’ve frequently confused the results of that enjoyable endeavor with edible hugs.
Burt Kempner
I’ll bear that in mind when I eat at your house, Robert. Thanks so much writing.