I think my most influential teacher was my mom. Yeah, I know it sounds cliché, but it’s true.

One particular moment stands out to me: my mom was talking about having to find an object to represent her life – I don’t remember why she had to – but I do remember that she chose pie. Now, you need to understand that my family entails several generations of market bakers, pie being one of our specialties. At first, I thought she was crazy, but as she explained it began to make sense.

Pie seems simple, but it’s actually quite complicated.

First, there is the crust. Much like the world we live on, crust starts out as a few essential ingredients, or elements, mashed together. Add water though, and things get complicated. Like people, if you work the pastry too much, it becomes tough and chewy, not enough, and it falls apart.

Next comes the filling. There are choices here, but ultimately you work with what is available. This represents the talents and gifts that each of us brings to this world. The uniqueness is what provides flavour.

Then you put it all together in a certain pattern that represents our choices: deep or shallow, pastry or crumb top, decorated or plain? All up to you.

Cook it, and depending on whether the oven likes you today or not (ours was not new or fancy and definitely had a mind of its own), you do or don’t get what you planned on. This represents fate, divine intervention, the unknown, or whatever you want to call it.

With aspects of life, or pie, if you’ve worked hard and done your best, you will probably have a decent outcome, but no guarantees. If it isn’t what you want, you may have to try again.

There are all types of pie, and all types of people, and they are all good. They all contribute something, and we value them all.

But the best part about pie, and life, is that you can share it. Both go well with ice-cream. When you eat it all, you can make some more, and continue.

All of this together is what creates the fullness of pie. Er … life. Both. This is where the metaphor really comes together for me: the overall history, appearance, smell, taste, culture, and experience of pie.

This moment showed me how a complicated, seemingly vast and abstract idea, like Life, can be explained in a relatively simple way by using something that the person is familiar with. For this reason, and for me, pie represents teaching.