I am a Jedi, among other things. I have owned my very own businesses and have some how or another gone from washing dishes in a few places to running the entire chain. This is not the subject of our time, the subject is this pan I found at a yard sale. 14 inches of rusted stainless steel. This thing was HUGE! I gripped the handle, and slid this enormous pan to the tip of the handle and felt the burn. The burn of my forearms remembering the sting of holding that same size pan over a range. My mind went back to cooking pasta for a friend of mine in his restaurant having a blast making all kinds of flavors of pasta and sauces back there. Time flew then. I spun it around in my hand and asked the lady who's yard sale it was how much does she want for it. ill take a dollar but I didn't like it and it sat in that crate for so long I good as well will let you have it. Smiley Face. That thing was dirty, im talking black caked gewp from years of heat and cooked grease all over this thing, not to mention the rust. We began our journey. Now , me being me, I took a green scrub pad to this thing for days, DAYS till the inside was good enough to see the shine. The outside how ever needed a lot more time than I could give it. For the time being it was clean and ready for our Kitchen. Not the prettiest thing in my vast array of bought and found treasures , certainly not true round, it had dinks in it, on the rim where some one obviously forgot it was a pan and used it I think to hold up a leg for a steel table. "Strange rust stains" . After time, the stains begin to disappear, not on their own of course but every time this huge pan is used I tend to give it a bit ...more...attention when scrubbing AKA ELBOW GREASE. Well low and behold , this very morning this 14 inch beast of a pan sits on my counter. Its 6:16 right now on 8 7 2016and this thing shines way brighter than any other item in the kitchen. Why is that? All that time and extra effort I put in to it, every time. A little here, a little there. After all this time this beast truly is no beast but a large thing of beauty to me. Yea its scratched and dinked a bit but its mine and we, me and my pan have a connection , strange as it may seem. I feel like my pan at times. Obviously the pan will never be new. Some of the scratches will never come out. Some of the dents are permanent, but I wouldn't trade or give that thing away for the world. To me its Priceless. At times I feel over used. Under scrubbed. Forgotten and even miss used, like my poor pan. That's the journey. I got a pan that can validate that. The more time we take to learn and grow, to me its like taking a green pad and scraping off just a bit more layer of grime off me. I wont get it all off in one sitting. Just cuz I read a few books don't make me smart. Its where the rubber meets the road. Can I do it? Can I do something, no matter how small it may seem now, can I grow or learn something. I KNOW I share in the idea that at any age we can learn. Even at 30 something now as I look at my pan I see myself all the years that has been erased and forgotten. I see the shiny thing that is today. Not what was, but what is now. Jedi and friends I offer this idea. Here in this place we learn and we grow. This place to me is some times the green pad I need to help bring out the shine. This place to me, is where rubber can meet road. I encourage those who are reading this, times are tough and no one is perfect. Some of us, im speaking of myself, come gunked up and scratched and misused and, that's ok. The more we learn the more we realize we are the change we need. The difference this place has made for me is real. Very real and can be life changing , if you so choose to. find what you seek but seek friends, seek! It matters not what we have been thru or where we've been, NOW is the moment that matters. Do you sit and pass a old dirty pan and think, no way too much work, to ugly, ill pass...or do you take some time and make it something priceless to you? I would hope these words encourage you where you are right now. Keep seeking and keep searching, keep growing and never stop. May the light that lives in you shine everyday friends. May it shine bright. With a little help!
Carlos
