Barefoot and Fearful

by - January 04, 2011

I keep thinking about Ina. You know, the Barefoot Contessa. The one with the cooking show on the Food Network, and a whole shelf of cookbooks in Borders.

She was on my TV while I was ironing about two months ago. I'm pretty sure I was thinking of blog posts and things to write about and how all this writing again after all these years of silence has revived something in me I thought was long dead. These thoughts are never far from front and center of my brain anymore. And Ina was making scones.

I was somewhere else until Ina started telling a Barefoot Contessa story. I love stories. People's stories. So I half paid attention while the hot iron flattened something cotton.

When she answered the phone it was someone from the Wall Street Journal who had somehow gotten a hold of one of her scones. The journalist probed like a pro:  Do you make other scones? What kink? Do you ship?

And Ina lied like Pinocchio: Why, certainly. We make Maple Walnut Scones, we have Cranberry Orange Scones, Pumpkin Scones, Blueberry, Lemon Ginger... . She assured the man the Barefoot Contessa was the place to find all things scones.

The truth was they only made one kind of scone — plain.  Amazingly good — but plain. And Ina was not about to blow her exposure through the Wall Street Journal with the truth. Only then, did Ina spent the next three days perfecting the recipes she made up over the phone with the Wall Street Journal guy.

I laughed. The Barefoot Contessa used the oldest trick in the book. Ina, the Industry Standard, faking it until she made it.

Which brings me back to writing and a few other issues in my life. I am fearless. I got a plan with details. I know exactly what I want to say and what to do. I don't feel vulnerable. When God calls, I step right up to the plate with confidence and say, "God, I'm your girl," and my knees don't knock and my voice doesn't crack. And I am perfectly capable. Are you listening, Mr. Wall Street Journalist?

Emily Freeman wrote some provoking thoughts about fear here today that I will most likely revisit. Fear has long paralyzed me in many areas of my life.  Emily and Ina are helping me to see fear as something else entirely. A propelling agent.

Plain scones didn't stand in Ina's way. Why should fear stand in mine?

Now, who has a recipe for Fear Glazed Courage I can perfect?

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3 comments

  1. You'll come back later and label this one:
    "Prologue"

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  2. Fantastic. Fear Glazed Courage sounds delish :)

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  3. What Ina did ...she did for business profit. I'm not sure I like the idea that it takes courage to lie and sell yourself. It takes real courage to tell the truth and take that risk. I tend to be fearful because I don't want to fail and want most of all to be loved and respected. It is hard at times to just be who you are and trust that God will and is using you just the way wou are ...fear glazed courage and all!

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