So a while back I encountered a piemaker. Now, I've always had a fondness for baked goods, pies in particular, so this was quite a fortuitous encounter. At first I was almost content to let the experience remain at the typical level of any simple encounter, a superficial brush with another human being that needed a significant analytic effort to infuse with any sort of meaning or purpose whatsoever. But, somehow at a critical cusp, some part of me decided that that would be quite a waste. So seizing the opportunity I insinuated myself into helping with the next round of piemaking. Though I can't say I remember much of the process or specifics, having eschewed the obvious approach of recording the recipe or remembering the subtleties of procedure involved. I do think I figured out the secret of piemaking. And I think it may very well be the secret of doing pretty much everything. As with many revelations, it probably seems a bit trite and obvious, but hey, we take what we can get... So... the secret is this... to make a pie, or specifically to make a pie well... one must make pies. Over and over again. With each iteration, the things that seemed complicated at first become almost instinctual, and the complexities that were nebulously beyond comprehension suddenly become almost tangible, begging to be manipulated to achieve the quintessential nature of pieness.