Word Lasagna

Here it is. Finally. The second blog post I’ve managed to add to my new website since the relaunch back in March.

My first blog post brought everyone up to date on my life’s adventures since ‘shutting down’ my old website where I blogged nearly daily. The update, entitled “Ready to Share” proved overly ambitious. I haven’t been sharing daily again. In fact, I haven’t shared anything at all in the two months since.

I thought I was ready to share again. Truly. But I must have only meant that I’d put all the right pieces together to be “Ready To Share” from a mechanical perspective. My kitchen and utensils are clean. I’ve got all kinds of ingredients, plenty of time and a genuine desire to get back to baking…

But what?

I have been writing. Writing lots. Writings lots and leaving it all unfinished. Unfinished, unused and unshared.

I know that isn’t a word, but it sounds good so I’m leaving it in. Don’t @ me.

I write a little bit and then I edit it. So I never finish writing and I never finish editing, so I never get to posting, presenting or sharing. There are oodles of documents, scripts, pitches and blogs bursting with creative efforts, all silently awaiting their inclusion within something finished. Something shared.

I’ve learned by watching my gastronomically gifted wife Zaira that if you’re struggling in the kitchen it’s likely because you’re not following your recipe.

Because I spent so long cooking as part of a team, following the recipe of broadcast TV, I’ve struggled to find the confidence to improvise in the kitchen again. I should be throwing pasta at the wall to see if it sticks, but the fusilli keeps looking up at me as if to say “What’s your recipe?”

The world is full of bakers and makers and we can all share our digital creations with people all over the world and I want to (and need to) create a new recipe for myself to join their ranks. But I’ve got regain the confidence to really get cooking and to ask people to try my creations. Maybe I’ve been throwing entirely too much pasta, sauce and spices all over the walls in an effort to create something original and wholly satisfying.
But maybe trying to reinvent Lasagna is too tall an order for myself? Maybe I should avoid pasta and stick with pastry? If I want to fight anthropogenic climate change, maybe I should look into cooking bugs?

Zaira encourages me to put out platters of appetizers to see what people enjoy the most.

I understand her reasoning, but I’m tired of appetizers.

My old team and I made appetizers for years. Promotional appetizers. Little wraps around the content the real creators and makers made. No shade or shame on my team though. I’m proud of most of what we did and to do it well involves a particular set of skills.

I could talk more about Esports and how I should maybe give myself a break for not ‘sharing’ as much as I’d hoped to by now, because of how often I’ve been working with the great team at Squad. But that’s a blog post for another time.

If the cooking metaphors haven’t made it clear, all I’m trying to say is that I want to create original layered content that inspires deeper consideration, conversation and maybe even action. It isn’t easy and I haven’t been sharing because I haven’t made anything I’d be proud to share.

At least not yet.

But my kitchen and utensils are clean. I’ve got all kinds of ingredients, plenty of time and a genuine desire to get back to baking…