Philosophy Pie and Cosmic Turkeys !

Ah, the transformative States and Tastes of Philosophy Pie !

“Yummy ! Yummy ! In your Tummy !” Who doesn’t like Pie ?

Philo is the Greek (and/or Latin) Pre-fixing pre-cursor of all Pie Makers (and/or Pie Eaters). They all have a ‘Loving’ for or an ‘affinity for’ Pie.

And, yes, there is even an “osophy” to Pie Making. Pie Makers have an ‘affinity for’ the Creative and Common Sensical Pursuit of Wisdom and Happiness Making inherent within the Art, Math, Science and History of Pie Making.

Pie ! Glorious Pie ! No matter what Size or Shape it may take. That’s right, more Artistic Souls even Experiment with the Sacred, and more commonly and roundly known Circular Form of Pie. There are Square Pies, Rectangular Pies, Five pronged Star Pies, Pi (3.141.59265) Shaped Pies,…..

Folks around the World Love to savor every delectable morsel and crusty crumble of a nice slice of Pie. Especially HomeMade Pie.

Thusly, while teaching Middle School aged Troubled Youth in a Fine Arts Based Behavioral Program I primarily created a few years ago, I taught my students the Philosophy of Pie Making.

Each Fall my students celebrated ThanksGiving together within our portable building. In fact, we had an old plastic, leafy evergreen tree which stayed up in our room year round. It was called our Giving Tree.

Our Giving Tree marked almost every Holiday of the school year with Student and Teacher colorful and sparkling HandMade Ornaments acknowledging and celebrating: Labor Day, Patriot Day, Columbus Day, United Nations Day, Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, Valentine’s Day, Washington’s Birthday, President’s Day, Benito Juarez’s Day, Easter, Earth Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Father’s Day, and Independence Day.

So, when ThanksGiving rolled around, our Giving Tree was covered with colorful, sparkling and highly imaginative, Turkeys (gobble ! gobble !).

Each year we Planted a Fall and Spring Garden at the back of the school grounds. It was one of our Science and Life Skills projects. My students even built and cemented in the cedar posts and six foot tall chicken wire fencing that surrounded our classroom Garden site.

We never used pesticides or ManMade fertilizers. Instead, we surrounded our Vegetables and Fruits with Herbs and Flowers which kept the pesky Insects at bay and/or busy munching until we could Reap the Bounteous Fruits (and Veggies) of all of Our Labors from our Garden Rows, as I was taught to do, while Growing-up, by my European Irish-English-German GrandParents and Mother.

We got our School Garden’s Fertilizer from the Horse and Cattle Ranch my students Worked at, and Learned to Ride and take care of Horses, and other Livestock at each Friday of every week. It was an added Special Program I had been fortunate enough to initiate within our entire school district for Troubled and Handicapped Students, which also Planted Seeds and Reaped many Beneficial and InValuable Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards, Skills and Opportunities for our Students.

During the Fall Garden Season, if the Pumpkin Patch did well, I was able to save some of my own personal funds. However, if the Pumpkins did not do so well, I made a stop at our local grocery store and bought the number of Pumpkins it would take to make sure that each of my Students had a Pumpkin to carve out in order to make a HandMade Turkey-o-Lantern and HomeMade Pumpkin Pie.

My Mother had handed down some fairly good Pumpkin Carving Skills to me, and so I Passed those same Skills, and more, on to my Students.

The Pumpkin was the chubby Body of the Turkey-o-Lantern. We carved out the usual area around the top stem of the Pumpkin, lifted it up and set it momentarily aside, in order to be able to carve out (and later season and bake) the Seeds, and the meaty Wall of the Pumpkin which we needed to separate from the Seeds, and Cook down, and considerably soften, in a giant, deep metal pot, with H2O, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves for three to four hours in class, and then cool down, before we could add the evaporated milk, vanilla and eggs, and beat all of those cooked ingredients together thoroughly with an electric hand mixer, before pouring that very same beaten Mixture into our HandMade and HomeMade Pie Crusts, Hand shaped and molded within Our Deep-Dish Pie tins.

While the Pumpkins ‘innards’ were cooking, and filling the classroom with the steamy (Scientifically vaporous and gaseous) fragrance of the (Scientifically Solid separate ingredients and dissolved and melted stirred Mixture of) brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves Saturating the Pumpkin ‘innards‘, we would all complete our Turkey-o-Lanterns with Hand decorated, colored construction paper heads, wings, feet, and large tail feathers.

We also carved small, decorative holes all over the Turkey-o-Lantern’s Pumpkin Body before inserting, and lighting our tea candles within our Turkey-o-Lanterns, and replacing its stem head.

Upon turning out the classroom’s lights, our Turkey-o-Lantern’s glowed and shone like planetarium globes. They became Cosmic Turkeys (gobble ! gobble !).

After enjoying the Scientific Magic of our Hand Carved Turkey-o-Lanterns, we would Read and Discuss the Xeroxed Packets I had put together of multicultural stories and legends concerning the Symbolic, Literary, Artistic and Sociological meanings and usages of Turkeys, Pumpkins, Pies and Days of ThanksGiving from around the World to one another.

Then we would Discuss the Math, Science and Philosophy of Turkey-o-Lantern and Pie Making, while Working Out the Pumpkin Pie’s Recipe’s formulaic mathematical measurements of the Pie’s needed ingredients multiplied(x) by however many Pies we were Making.

When everyone finished their Recipe measurement computations, we checked and discussed one another’s Work, and then completed Mixing the thick Pumpkin, spice filled Liquid of the Pie with the Electric hand mixer. The Pumpkin Pie contents of the giant pot were then measured out and poured into the HandMade Pie Crusts (some better looking and better made than others), and Hand carried over to the main building’s Special Education/Home Education’s Room to bake at 325 degrees for approximately an hour.

While awaiting our HomeMade Pies, I played light and playful pieces of instrumental classical Music while we finished Reading and Discussing the multicultural stories and legends, and Shared our own Personal Stories and Familial Traditions around the Holiday of ThanksGiving.

We always baked an extra HomeMade Pumpkin Pie for the Special Education/Home Education Teachers and Students to say ‘Thanks’ for their having allowed us to Bake our Pies of ThanksGiving in their Shared main building facilities.

When the Pumpkin Pies came out of the oven, we all sat down at long wooden tables and Served one another. While thoroughly enjoying each and every warm, rich bite of our HomeMade Pies, we each Shared one Special Thing we really treasured about or looked forward to during the ThanksGiving Holiday.

After cleaning up the mess we made in the kitchen area of the Special Education/Home Education Room, and setting aside and wrapping up the rest of our HomeMade Pumpkin Pies for our Family members, we would return to our Portable, and end our Discussions with the Knowledge that Everything in Life, even the most Basic things, involves one Form or another of Math, Science, History, Art, Music and Philosophy.

The Philosophy I always stressed was the difficult and constant, but Beneficially Necessary Work involved within maintaining a State of Loving CareGiving and ThanksGiving, Personally or Collectively. That, yes, Loving CareGiving and ThanksGiving are multilayered and multileveled. They exist within States of Ether and Ethos and measurable, tangible Actions and ReActions. And that every Action Made or Taken Creates and/or Destroys something else.

We had All Taken a Pumpkin and in Destroying its Original Form had Created a Cosmic Turkey-o-Lantern and a HomeMade Pumpkin Pie for OurSelves and Our Loved Ones ! Creations of Our more Loving, CareGiving and ThanksGiving Better Angels and Better Natures.

Ah ! The splendiferous and transformative States and Tastes of Philosophy Pie and Philosophical Pie Making !