Benjamin and I made pizza Sunday night. After 18 years we have it down.
- Brush an egg yolk on the crust.
- Put the pizza sauce on top of that.
- Then the pepperoni.
- Then the homemade Italian sausage.
- Then the cheeses.
- Then the sliced green olives on one half of one of the pizzas.
- Then cook in the oven at 500 degrees for seven or eight minutes and dinner is served.
Making pizza isn’t really about making pizza. Best I can count, we have six pizza places within a mile of our house. Ordering from them would be faster and cheaper and cleaner than making it. Creating pizza is about sharing memories and sharing dreams. It is about listening and laughing. Our pizza tastes better than various pizza places. I’m guessing it’s not the pizza as much as the event. The sharing and caring.
We have been doing all the things we like doing one last time before he goes to college. He is moving Labor Day weekend.
St. Olaf was founded in 1874 by a Norwegian pastor. So there’s that. It is named after the patron saint of Norway. It is a Lutheran school and they seem quite proud such is the case. It is a gorgeous setting and usually appears at near the top of the list of America’s most beautiful college campuses. And it’s got the Kierkegaard Library—the largest collection of such writings and research outside of Copenhagen. So there’s that too.
But it’s over five hours away. It’s all Interstate except the first seven miles and the last seven miles. But 360 miles is 360 miles.
We went to Scheel’s the same day we made pizza. Benjamin won’t be home until Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and it will be better this year. Anyway, Northfield is a scenic college town located on the Cannon River. But this is Minnesota. Trick-or-Treaters dress like Vikings and polar bears and Eskimos out of necessity. I bought him a winter coat off the sale rack and some wool socks. It seems strange to buy such things when the heat index is well above 100 degrees, but we are trying to work on this advance-planning thing.
I’ll probably just make one pizza next time. I’ll put green olives on a third of it instead of half. I’ll get David will help me. He is playing football this fall. I can wait to hear those stories. And he is quite clever and creative. But it won’t be the same for any of us.
Benjamin has taught me something this summer. A quote that can be found in the Kierkegaard library: “It seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important.”
That is a good word. One marble left.
